Transformed by Love

Transformed By Love

My friend, Brandi, posted this on her blog and I post it here with her permission. from A Place Of Quiet Rest by Nancy Leigh DeMoss.

In the old testament book called the Song of Solomon (or Song of Songs), we read the story of a wealthy king who decides to find a bride. Much to everyone's surprise, the king does not pick one of the wealthy, well-educated, well-bred young women of the city. Rather, he goes out into the country and selects a common, ordinary peasant girl to be his bride. She is not beautiful; in fact, her skin is rough and dark from having worked out in the sun in her family's vineyards. When the king brings her back to the palace, the "daughters of Jerusalem" are astonished at his choice. And no one is more astonished than the girl herself.
Nonetheless, the king takes his bride into his bedchamber, where he lavishes his love on her. By the end of the story, this young peasant girl has become a lovely, radiant woman whose beauty attracts the attention of all who see her. What has happened? She has spent time alone with her bridegroom. And she has taken on his characteristics. It is not her own loveliness, but his, that others see in her. She has been transformed by his love.
Deep within the heart of every true child of God is a longing to be like Jesus, to reflect His beauty. We cry out,

O to be like Thee! O to be like Thee,
Blessed Redeemer, pure as Thou art!
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fulness -
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

-Thomas O. Chisholm (1866-1960)

But there are no shortcuts to Christlikeness. Shortcuts only lead to masquerading. There is no substitute for spending consistent, quality time alone in His presence. The cost is great. But the rewards are even greater. If we want to be transformed, we must be willing to

Take time to be holy, speak oft with thy Lord;
Abide in Him always, and feed on His Word . . .
Take time to be holy, the world rushes on;
Much time spend in secret with Jesus alone;
By looking to Jesus, like Him thou shalt be;
Thy friends in thy conduct His likeness shall see.

- William D. Longstaff (1822-94)

Created to be Dave's help meet

We've been home a week-
It has been QUITE the eventful week- have you ever had one of these days...
On the day before we left to go back to Florida we ordered a hot tub on line from Costco. Now we are home...getting ready for the delivery...so we get out the set up guide we printed out....Dave has questions about the wiring...so he calls the number on the set up guide...the wait is 10 minutes...
Yes, can we help you? No, we don't make that hot tub!
So...we go back to the literature...and discover that it is some set up guide that we got who knows where?
So what hot tub DID we order?
We go to the Costco site- it, of course is no longer on the site. So we call Costco- the wait...10 minutes.
We finally get to talk to a live person anda they tell us how to get to the "cached" web site...
we hang up...go on the Web- via dial up- another 10 minutes.
The information they gave us does not work
Go off the web...call Costco...the wait...10 minutes
They again say that they have tried what they tell us and it works...so it MUST be something we are doing wrong.
We go back on the web...10 minutes via Dial up...
The information STILL does not work.
So...we decided to call the company who manufactured and will be delivering the hot tub.
WE call.....and....a ten minute wait...of course.
The girl there says...I think we make that hot tub but I can't find it on my computer! Please hold.... dial tone.
Call back....WE ae sorry...our office is closed for the day!
In the mean time I go to Google and enter the name of the hot tub and it comes up on the cached site of Costco...so we are able to get the informatin we need.
By this time we are WEARY...so we settle in to watch t.v.
BUt...no picutre. I won't bore you with the details but after 7 or 8 calls to the t.v. manufacturer...Direct T.V. and about 2 hours later...after having gone to the 3rd level tech guy...they say they will have to send someone out- it will be 2 days.
The NEXT day...Dave is working on getting electrical connections set up- but is not working with live wires...but I suddenly hear a LOUD explosion in the living room. Since there is a fire going- and Amy just told me about glass screens exploding- I expect to find glass all over the living room- but...nothing. I remember Dave is working with electricity so I franatically run outside yelling, DAVE! DAVE! expecting to find him lying in a heap at every turn...I check all the places...the garage..the well house...screaming frantically...and then trip and fall face down on the cement patio in back...just then I see him down at the lake...I yell for him to come quickly. As he SAUNTERS up the hill ( I momentarily forget how happy I was that he is ALIVE!) ...I smell electrical burning smells and notice there are NO lights on the DVR...the surround sound or t.v. system.
After much investigation...having an electrician and the Electic company out...we discover that the Surge protector on the t.v. etc. blew...but it seemingly didn't hurt the equipment on it.. but..it also blew 2 other circuits...blowing out a telephone and the computer. We will see how good the surge protector warranties are. It was a most stressful day. The monster surge protector co. is sending out a new unit so until then...no t.v. in the living room...we are relegated to watching t.v. from our bed! ...and using the lap top computer.

This morning in my devotions I began again to ask God what it means for me to be Dave's help meet. I began the day by asking...what can I do for Dave today that will bless him and let him know he is the most important person in my world?
I'll be trying to post more on this topic.
I find it an utter privilege to be a help meet to this man! The most awesome man in my world. I am so very, very blessed! This is a much more relaxed day in Florida when Dave connected with his chicken at the basketball court! That's my man!..

There's no place like home

As we were within 20 miles of home we said to each other, "How is it that we were only gone 3 weeks but it seemed like 3 months?" (It was 3 months total but we were home for a month in December.) It is SO good to be home. Especially that we came home to rain...it only rained about the last 30 miles though, even though the weather map yesterday showed that we would have rain ALL the way home! We prayed...God answered...praise the Lord! We remarked to each other after we were home...if we never left...we would never appreciate home so much! The reasone we were not minding the rain here is that it is filling up our lake...which was down 6 feet...and now is down only 2!
We are looking forward to church tomorrow and maybe seeing some of our kids and grandkids. Come on over kids...we would love to see you!

Florida...the last Hurrah!

Florida...family...Disney World... Today we spent several hours at Disney...oompliments of a friend from TM- a former intern Bryce. A BIG thank you to him. He worked for 3 years with Jon and Kelly and this was a thank you to them that we cashed in on! Jordan was fascinated much of the time but had her head buried in her daddy's neck part of the time! We are now home for "naps" and will return shortly for the evening- parade and fireworks. How fun with a 2 year old! Truly a magical experience. God is good! All the time!

Tomorrow we plan to leave for Texas and, Lord willing, be home by Saturday night. We are So anxious to be home again. Our time in Florida has been good...but there's no place like home!

What am I?

"What am I? Well, here is what I am. I am the worst sinner I know. And by the grace of God I am doing better than I deserve. For I deserve the righteous wrath of God because of my sin. I deserve to be punished eternally. But in the mystery of His mercy, God sacrificed and crushed His Son on the Cross--as my substitute--so that I might be forgiven of my sin and know God as my Father rather than my Judge. What am I? I am truly amazed by the grace of God. That's what I am." ~ C.J. Mahaney Together for the Gospel Blog
Thanks to Brandi for this quote on her e-mails. This is what we are!

44 Wonderful Years

New Year's Eve...our celebration of 44 years since our engagement! I was probably the happiest woman alive that night...I had been waiting for 3 1/2 years for this moment- and it came as a total surprise! Next June we will celebrate 44 years of wedded "bliss". Dave and I were just talking yesterday- after watching a great message by Dr. Creflo Dollar on marriage- how we are still growing more in love each year and how much fun our retirement years have been...and how we both love spending 24/7 together. So many people told us that this season is such a hard one to adjust to...we have not found that to be true. We love being retired and doing so many things together.
I have to tell you how proud I was of Dave today. We went back to our rental home here to work on the garage door opener- again. We had spent about 6 hours working on it before Christmas. Dave is the most patient man I've ever known! I was privileged to be the "helpmeet" on this job- holding the flashlight- getting the right tool- holding the motor up with a garden hoe wrapped in a rag so it wouldn't fall on his head...and making encouraging remarks like, "I would just take the whole thing and dump it in the trash and say, 'this house no longer comes with an electric garage door opener!" Dave took the entire motor apart- screw by screw- I thought he was nuts! thinking...He'll NEVER get this back together. He had to repair something or other in it and do many other miraculous things that simply amazed me! He worked on it for another 3 -4 hours and when all was done...it worked! I was flabergasted! He is THE MAN! Thank you Lord for the privilege of working side by side with this man of yours. I am so blessed.
And then....

How many women would die for a husband that takes her ballroom dancing 3 times in a week? Yes, we went to a wonderful dance on New Year's Eve, then to the Sons of Italy Italian club last night and to our Deltona Dance Club tonight. We dance here in Florida with a great bunch of people. Tonight as we were cleaning up there was a couple handing out a Ray Comfort tract! We of course struck up a conversation with them and found out we have so much in common. It was their first night there. The picture here is Dave doing a line dance! We both love line dances and tonight we were discussing what our favorite dance is...we can't decide between Rhumba and Waltz and Swing...we like them all so much. God is good. He has so blessed us. We want to continue living out our lives for HIM and thank HIM that he has given us each other. For anyone reading this...who may be going through tough times...we say...be committed to each other...hang in there during the tough times....God is faithful!