How Does Your (Spiritual) Garden Grow? Do you seek the abundant life mentioned by Jesus in the Bible? Let’s take a few minutes and look in the Scriptures to find some clues as to Who is truly in charge of this thing called “Life”. At the end, I’ll share another one of my featured songs, […]
The Master’s Garden Read More »
Is the “lawn” of your spiritual life planted purely with the best grass seed, resulting in a beautiful green, softly carpeted landscape, or is it filled with a variety of weeds of every shape and kind, spreading by seeds above ground when the wind blows, and creeping underground by the roots, so that it feels
Want some increased clarity and discernment in your daily life? Do you have a hard time hearing the “still small voice” whispering to you because there’s a horrendously loud and shrill ringing in your ears? Is the true intent of your heart not getting through to others because your conflicting attitudes and actions are drowning
How do you discern the will of God? Do you long to follow after Jesus, yet you’re not sure how to figure out which way He is leading? Have you ever had a big decision to make and weren’t sure which way God would have you go? Shifting Gears For this week’s blog, we’re going
Discerning the Will of God Read More »
Have you ever noticed that it takes no effort whatsoever to grow an abundant crop of weeds in your garden, but it takes much planning, focus and effort to keep your garden beautiful, healthy and fruitful? Does that tendency remind you at all of your own life, the Church or even our government/society? In continuing
Thorns and Thistles Read More »
This week’s Manna From My Father’s Hand Blog and Podcast are going to focus on my recent “Third Thursday’s at Three” concert. I will link below to a video of the replay where you can watch AND listen, as well as to the podcast version where you can simply listen to the entire concert. For
Concert Replay 7-18-2024 Read More »
Do you know that your way is not hidden from the Lord? At times it can surely feel that it IS hidden from His sight. Have you ever felt that way? Do you know that He can spread the fragrance of Christ in the midst of the deepest, darkest valley of your life? The God
Freedom This week, in carrying on with our gardening theme and celebrating our Independence Day (July 4) in the United States, it seems timely to discuss a little bit about the freedom that we celebrate in the earthly realm, in our “free” country, which affords us the opportunity to even speak of these types of
Have you become a “new creation”, changed to your core and in your very essence, by One who has planted the seed of His Holy Spirit deep in the soil of your heart? Do you believe that God can not only make YOU into someone who reflects the image of His Son, but also work
The Choice is Yours So many choices in life. Whether to have cereal or eggs for breakfast? Whether to go to college or get a job after high school? Whether to plant or whether to uproot? Whether to go out or stay home? Whether to speak the truth in love or remain silent? Whether to
Genuine or Counterfeit? When given a choice, do you prefer the real thing or an imitation? Genuine money or counterfeit? An actual rainbow in the real sky, no matter how faint … or a colorful, gaudy fake representation, short on colors and substance? A plant that actually bears a harvest or one that looks just
Do you desire for the “garden” of your life to be flourishing, but find that destructive critters keep digging up everything you try to plant? Do the challenges, failures and set-backs of this life find you hiding FROM Christ, or is your life hidden WITH Christ in God? Let’s explore that today… Song of Songs
This week’s blog and podcast is taking a bit of an unexpected turn once again. Perhaps I should start getting used to that! The Lord seems to steer things in a different direction so often, and it does make it interesting at times, to say nothing of getting a little figurative whiplash! This is a
Blossom as His Garden Grows Read More »
Deep and Lasting Work God does indeed work in mysterious ways. When your life and ways are submitted to Jesus, He is faithful to accomplish His work. Even in the midst of our inability to always hear Him clearly or perfectly follow His every leading, somehow for those who are “called according to His purposes”
Empty or Full? Are your sails empty or full? And while we’re at it, how’s your tire pressure? Have the tires that help you navigate the rocky roads of this life become deflated? Has the wind in your sails become so seemingly non-existent that you’re sitting out in the middle of the lake of life
In case you haven’t gotten to watch the replay of last week’s “Third Thursdays at Three” in-home concert, I will put a link to the video below. This month’s concert actually went up online successfully, PTL! I reposted the video after increasing the volume a little, and thankfully, the video saved to my computer had
April 18-2024 Concert Read More »
This blog post is associated with the podcast that can be found here: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/shining-river9/episodes/11-Wake-Up-e2ib09u Sorry this blog entry took so LONG to get posted! Taxes caused an extra delay, but now, this is ready to be posted after an important housekeeping issue: This week is a bit different than my normal routine, because TOMORROW (4/18/2024)
Wake Up–Can You Hear Him NOW? Read More »
What is Meditation? Have you noticed how our culture and the “world” seems to increasingly attempt to co-opt certain terms that Christians use to apply to “good” things? Words like “meditate” or “woke” (as opposed to being “awake”). Today, let’s “meditate” on meditation:). The Bible often speaks of meditating, but not in the way that
Escaping Through the Flames Do you hear Jesus knocking? OPEN THE DOOR! Escape the flames! Would you rather have a flame that perfected you in the sight of God, or one that destroyed you? I know my answer! In the Spirit, there are doors to OPEN, and doors to SHUT or KEEP SHUT. It may
Well…. So much for OUR plans;)! For those who tried to join me for my livestream concert yesterday (first of all THANK YOU for trying!), you probably figured out I was having technical issues. So the livestream didn’t go up to YT, BUT, thankfully the video WAS recorded to my hard drive, so today I
Holy Hush Do you ever have trouble sitting still and being quiet before the Lord? Does your mind ever race when you try to be still and pray? Sometimes we need a “holy hush” to come over our hearts, by the grace of Jesus. An Answer That Raised More Questions If you read last week’s
Can You Hear Me Now? We have discussed a lot about being able to see in the spiritual realms in recent weeks. The other side of that equation is needing EARS that hear, which was often an area on which Jesus would focus His disciples’ attention. His use of parables (like word pictures) often would
Listen–Can You Hear Me Now? Read More »
Vision How is your vision? Your spiritual vision, that is. The last blog post asked “Can we have light?” We can have a lot of light, but if we are blind, we will not be able to see it or be aware of it. Psalm 119:105 says “Your word is a lamp to my feet
Last year, the Manna From My Father’s Hand blog began with a series about my earthly father’s story (which was the inspiration for the blog in many ways). In episode six, I mentioned a time when my father had said something like “Can we have LIGHT?” one morning shortly before he passed away. At the
Can We Have LIGHT? Read More »
This week’s Manna From My Father’s Hand was posted as a Podcast, which highlighted a song I’d posted in late 2023 called Winter Snow. The Podcast was entitled “A Beautiful Cover–Song and Story for a Snowy Day” since we’ve had a couple of snowy days lately. Here is a link to the Podcast on Spotify:
Yesterday it was one year since my father passed away. I have trouble believing a year has passed already! Even in the midst of it all, God has been good. I recorded a podcast yesterday, which was posted today, and I’ll link to it below. I also posted a video of the podcast on my
Painter of the Heavens Read More »
Greater Love Has it ever seemed to you that Jesus was asking you to step up and step out of your comfort zone so that He could use you to show His love to someone, even when it was REALLY hard? I’ve had many moments like that over the past year, and the most difficult
In-Home Concert Livestream from 1/18/2024 Here’s a replay of my second attempt at livestreaming a concert from home. It was a bit of a challenge to get it all working (doing it by myself, so trying to wear many hats at once!). Thankfully, I kept going nonetheless, and it came out OK in terms of
Livestream Mini-Concert Replay from 1-18-2024 Read More »
Resembling Parents? As you have matured, have you ever noticed that you look more and more like your father or mother? A bit frightening sometimes, huh!? Has your father ever said something like “You’re just like your mother” or your mother said “You’re just like your father”. If your parents are happily married, maybe that
Just Like Your Father Read More »
Downpours Has your life lately been like a parched wasteland, with a barren expanse where there used to be abundant water? Has life come upon you or your loved ones like a torrential storm, ready to engulf you and overwhelm any hope of getting back to “normal”? God is more than able to use those
Streams in the Wasteland Read More »