Heartstrings

"Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden,and I will give you rest; take my yoke upon you and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30

I read a quote that said, "The questions that matter in life are remarkably few, and they are all answered by the words - "Come unto me." not-'do this, or do that'."

What are my desires? to grow in faith and be more like the Lord; be used of God; to lead others to the saving knowledge of Jesus; to have a song in my heart and on my lips -  If I come to Jesus my life will be brought into line with my true desires. Jesus Christ is the Cornerstone. He is the turning point. Will I come in childlike faith? -I have, for salvation. Now will I "come" daily?  At the most unexpected moments there is the whisper, "come unto me". I can have this "rest" that He promises: rest of spirit, not a promise of a life of ease.

"Make all my heartstrings in tune with thine own", as the song says. Are my heartstrings in tune? When He plucks a string or when circumstances arise that stirs my instrument within, does the song ring true and agree with the song of the Lord?

Dear Lord, I praise you that when we daily come, yoke up with and learn of you, you will fulfill your promise of bringing rest of soul! Let me do this simple, childlike thing and take hold of your hand and never let it go! 

The image of  leaves on this sandstone are the shadow of what is unseen. 

Post Script: Last night we learned about a truly "horrible" situation that has come up in my husband's family. I will not at all go into detail but will say that it could affect the actual physical lives of a couple of his family members. It is certainly affecting their spiritual lives already. We are scared for this person and would ask any of you who are 'pra-yers' to add this girl's family to your prayer list. The Lord knows all about it but it is a scary situation that only He can handle, as the authorities in that area are not doing their job (it is sad to say).  As I read the post over again, Syd's and my heartstrings need to be in tune with God while we come to Him and earnestly pray, trusting that the Lord is going to work this out for His glory.

A Berry Good Tip

Hi All, I just tried a wonderful (hopefully) tip that one of my sweet friends passed on to me last week. I emailed this to alot of people and today was blessed with two quarts of strawberries to try it on. This is the "tip":

When you buy or pick fresh berries- mix apple cider vinegar and water in a 1 to 10 part ratio (I only had a few berries today, so I used 1/4 c. vinegar to 2 1/2 c. water). Mix the vinegar and water in a large bowl. Dunk the berries in, either while in the strainer or just dump them in (easier if in a strainer). Submerse them and swish around. The vinegar in the water is supposed to kill any mold spores. I let the strainer drain for a while, then turned them all out on a paper towel to get as much water off as possible. I then wiped out the original plastic berry boxes and put a piece of napkin down in the bottom (but didn't cover the little side holes). I placed the berries back in and I hope it truly keeps these beautiful strawberries from molding. I don't know about you, but it's discouraging to get them home and within two days have mold all over the ones underneath. You don't need to rinse the berries afterwards because (this article claimed) that you do not taste the vinegar at all.

I'm going to be excited if this works, as we're big berry lovers and hate to see them go to waste! I know, too that vinegar rinses are important to get pesticides off commercial fruit. This may aid in that also.

This wasn't taken just yesterday, obviously; and these are not strawberries, but I loved this picture of our little great-niece, Beth, and her great Grammy, gathering apples for the squeezing.

Motives

We had a wonderful Lord's day together with our church family yesterday. There was a special speaker there; Preston and Abi Smith, missionaries going to Japan. Preston shared his deep burden for the people of Japan. When he preached he started in the book of Jonah. Jonah was called to go to Nineveh but he went directly the opposite way. We know the account. God had a great fish prepared to swallow up Jonah, change his mind and vomit him out on dry land. Jonah then went to preach to the people of Nineveh but with a wrong motive. When the people repented, Jonah was angry and displeased.  Mr Smith then shared the burden of Paul's heart for his people; that he would be willing to be accursed if only the people he preached to would come to know the Lord. What a different heart and motive Paul had! He also compared Paul to Moses, who also said that he would be willing to be blotted out of God's book to see his people turn to the Lord! It was a blessing and blow to my heart. What is my attitude toward the unsaved all around me? Nowhere in the New Testament has God commanded me to want to be accursed or blotted out of God's book of life, but do I care about people even half that much? The example of Paul and Moses' motives were those that I pray that I will have in my heart as I learn to love the Lord with ALL and draw closer to Him daily. Unfortunately, sometimes I have the attitude of Jonah, unwilling to even share a tract or tell someone about the wonderful Lord Jesus; out of fear or perhaps because I am too busy! At those times it is as if I do not want people to turn to the Lord. As brother Smith also shared; I know we all want others to be reconciled to God through His Son, but do our actions always show it?  It was like a sword, piercing into my heart. I would thank any of you who would pay for me toward allowing the Lord to change this in me.

"The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water." John 4:14