by Rebecca Vickery
​“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like. They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built.”  Luke 6:46-48
In 1998, on March 13 in the middle of a small café, I heard about Jesus in a way that instantly connected and resonated with me.  He was not a far-off Savior unfamiliar with my suffering, but a man/God who loved me enough to live a life devoid of privilege, facing temptation and suffering, and to die that I might have a relationship with him.  My response was a radical shift from an earlier me who had laughed in the face of someone who shared a gospel tract with me.  Instead, I knew that I could have no response but to follow him forever.  I was 16 years old.  After this time, I would devour the Bible as if I truly required it for living.  Because I did.
I have a treasure trove of His word in my heart from my earliest days of following Jesus.  Even now, when I am spending less time in His physical Word than I should, I still have this treasure trove to return to.  I can reflect upon it, and it comes to mind readily when I am spending time in prayer or faced with stressors in this world. 
God’s Word lays a foundation in our hearts that cannot be broken when battered upon by fierce winds or rising flood waters.  I reflect upon this even as our state capitol is under water and being threatened by an overtaxed dam.  Our physical world around us can literally be washed away, and if we have a foundation that is built upon the Rock that is Jesus, then even if we are crushed, even if we are outwardly wasting away, even if we are swept away in the floods, we will stand firm. 
My health has been so strange and frustrating for me in the last few years.  I have faced relationship challenges that have left me bewildered.  I have faced health issues with my children that have kept me up nights researching. I could lament and cry at God, and ask Him why my life can’t be as perfect as everyone else’s looks on facebook.  But instead, I cry with God and thank Him that He’s there with me when I do.  And I rest upon my foundation.  The rock on which I stand. 
Jesus told us that in this world we would have trouble, but that He would give us peace.  Peace that passes understanding.  Recently my good friend spent a sabbatical at our home after the recent passing of his mother.  At the end of his time with us, he thanked us for a peaceful sabatical.  Even amidst the chaos and overpopulation of my tiny home, he had a place for refuge.  Peace that passes(d) understanding.
A prayer:
Lord God, we know that you control the winds and the waves.  We know that you can bring restoration and destruction.  Lord we need your mercy in our state.  Please help the people in Montpelier and other areas affected by the flood waters.  Preserve life and preserve properties.   Preserve our infrastructure and restore roadways that have been damaged and communities that have been cut off.  Lord I also pray for those experiencing a metaphorical deluge of flood waters.  Be our firm foundation.  Help our hearts not to be troubled.  Help us not to be afraid.   Remind us of your promises and your mercy that is new every morning.  Help us to be rooted and established in your love AND in your word.  We know that you are the one who keeps us from falling.  Help us come to you even when we can just communicate to you with our groanings.  Thank you, Holy Spirit, for interceding as we need it.  In Jesus’ Name.  Amen

​By Mary Spence
Our daily bread… not weekly or monthly or yearly but daily.
 
He is asking us to trust him with our daily needs,
To rely upon him and not ourselves,
To trust him and know that he will provide for us.
Each and Every day.
To bring our needs to him and to trust that he will provide.
Matthew 6:26-27
Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
I used to struggle terribly with anxiety. Through my faith and growing relationship with God I began to exercise my faith muscle and trust in him for all my needs. I began to see over and over how he was providing:
In the people he brought alongside me at just the right time,
In how He provided opportunities and blessings beyond my greatest expectations.
In unexpected provision when there seemed to be no way out.
 
As I learned to keep my eyes focused on Him, I began to see that none of the many things I was trying to control was actually under my control. Slowly my anxiety became less as my faith became deeper and stronger.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and he will make your paths straight – Proverbs 3:5-6
In all your ways. Even those sinful secret ones. As if we can keep our humanness a secret from the one who created us. He knows our every thought; our every move before we even make it. And He still loves… just like we are. Even in our sin.
Father
As we come to you for daily bread help us to remember that your ways are not our ways, and our plans are not your plans. Help us to submit to your will; to hear when you speak, to answer when you call. Let us trust in you with all our heart. To lean on your understanding, not our own. Please make our paths straight and keep our focus on you, especially when we are being blown back and forth like a tumbling tumbleweed by the trials of this world.
We thank you, that you declare, “No! They are mine!” That you are a firm foundation we can stand upon. That we can see your light in the darkness and find our way out of the confusion and discontent and disorientation. That you pluck us from the muck and mire and place our feet on the rock, on your firm foundation. AMEN!

By Joyce Pelletier
John 1:10-13
‘He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him. Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His Name, He gave the right to become children of God.  Children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.’
            There is so much in this reading. God created us purposefully. The most important focus is when we come to realize is that we are children of God. When we recognize that we are chosen by Father-God, what does that really mean?
             Jesus is the most important person in my life. It took me many years and life experiences to accept that for myself. Somehow in the past few years, my heart has healed from growing up in sadness and pain from parents who really didn’t know what love was or how to express it. Like so many of us they were victims of not knowing how to love. Sometimes we fail, but the Father is there to lift us up again.
           We grew up poor but didn’t know it. Going to church was a must do on Sunday mornings. My brother and I were there every Sunday. We heard the Gospels and other readings. However, I rarely got anything out of going to a traditional church. However, it always piqued my interest listening to the Gospels. Something in me knew they were important, but I had no clue why. I remember hearing about Jesus, but that’s as far as it went.  I went to catechism on Saturdays, but that’s all I remember. There was not much encouragement of developing a personal relationship with Jesus. It wasn’t until I was in my 30’s that I heard the truth from a friend. She shared Jesus with me. My life has never been the same since. Mom and Dad rarely went to church, let alone about Jesus.
            There was a lot of confusion and pain from growing up in the 40’s. This past year, as I reread my mom’s journal it opened so many new doors and it was a real eye-opener to me to read that she loved Jesus. She didn’t know how to show it. She was not mean or unfeeling, she just missed out on the closeness that could have been in her life. Her life experiences were very difficult.
            Reading through Mom’s words brought me peace and understanding that I missed along the way. God was showing me who Mom really tried to be. Now my memories swing towards the good she tried to live.
My first Bible Study was with a group of women from our neighborhood. As we studied the Gospel of John, my heart was open to receive whatever God wanted me to have.
             I never understood why a man had to die on the cross. No one explained that to me. It was when I accepted Jesus as Lord of my life, that on the long road of not knowing, became a journey of an amazing awareness of who Jesus is. Through the study of John, I learned what having a personal relationship was supposed to be. Jesus gets down and personal with us. The concept of being an adopted daughter (child of God) is where I want to be the rest of my life. Even when I fail, God doesn’t abandon me. He gets me and is always ready to forgive my sins. I understand more why Jesus He so willingly went to the cross so we can receive the promise of Eternity.
            Every time the worship team leads any song that mentions being a child of God, the conviction of this truth opens my eyes wider and wider to the joy that comes with knowing who I am in Jesus. The reality of being a child of God is very real and has made tremendous difference in how I handle things that sometimes are hard to deal with. Maybe that is also true for you. I hope that you come to know that the Father never has left your side and He’ll never stop fighting for us. Psalm 139 has become a good friend to me.
            I tend to keep overly busy most days, sometimes I put more pressure on myself. That same friend who shared Jesus with me and I were texting recently. She asked me  how do I keep my schedule so active. My response was…
                                                                  First – Keep my focus on Jesus and
                                                                  Second – One thing at a time.
                                                                  And third remembering – I am a child of God, I am never alone!

​By Donna Churchill
 
 
“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”  Matthew 6:7, 8
 
When I read this, it makes me think that because my Father knows what I need, He has prepared the answer for me before I even know the question. Most of the time I don’t know what I really have need of, but God always does and He has already prepared the provision for that need. Before I can even articulate the prayer, the provision is on the way. Now that doesn’t always mean that I see the immediate answer to the need, but I believe it does mean that God has seen the need. In the subsequent Scriptures, when Jesus teaches us how to pray, He includes this request, “…Give us this day our daily bread….” He knows and understands that we will have need of daily bread, which I believe encompasses our physical needs as well as our spiritual needs; the needs of the whole person. He knows we will have needs.
 
Several weeks ago, the Lord illuminated a Scripture from Psalms to me. I have probably read that psalm many, many times. But on this particular day, it jumped off the page to me.
 
“He is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord.” Psalm 112:7
 
Wow, I thought, as I read this. I need to stop here and ponder this for awhile. My mind went to all the bad news we hear in the world every day that just gets worse and worse and I thought this is a good verse for trusting the Lord with what’s going on in our world. I’m going to hold on to this one.
 
Two days later, I received personal bad news and in the days since I read that verse, (it’s been a few weeks now) I have received several personal pieces of bad news!
 
The first “bad news” I received, I will admit, threw me for a loop. It was very unexpected and quite overwhelming and has the potential to affect my daily life. And I will also admit, I didn’t receive it very graciously. Thankfully, it came via text so I was able to “contain” my response, but I still did not respond with the grace available. For about five hours, I stewed and plotted about how I was going to handle this “bad news” going forward; how I was going to rearrange things to compensate for this “bad news.” Looking back, I can just picture the Lord allowing me to get myself all worked up and in a frenzy about how I was going to fix this. I’m sure He was shaking His head, saying, “Donna…Donna…Donna!”
 
Then the Holy Spirit gently reminded me of the Scripture I had read just two days earlier.
 
“Are you going to trust me with this? Are you going to trust that I knew about this before you did and it’s no surprise to me? Are you going to trust that I have made provision for you? Haven’t I always provided for you? Is your heart firm, trusting in me in this “bad news?”
 
God had given me the answer when I didn’t even know yet the prayer! Trust in Him!
 
Two things were at play in my heart in the midst of this: Did I believe that God is good regardless of the circumstances and do I believe God is sovereign over all of life? The answer has to be yes and with that yes comes the ability to trust….in ALL things because I know He’s got this.
 
 
For the rest of the day, I felt the Holy Spirit ministering to me with this verse and others He has given me, gently reminding me of all the Lord has done for me and reminding me of things He has spoken to me over the years. I repented and prayed through the evening and the next morning. The next day, I called the person who was the messenger of the “bad news” and apologized and was able to share, even though this person is not a Christian, the word the Lord gave me and the fact that I was trusting God and I understood her part in it. I don’t know what the Lord did in her heart through the Word, but I know what He has done in mine.
 
Since that first piece of “bad news,” I have received several more pieces of “bad news.” I’m not entirely sure what God is up to, but I know He continues to teach me day to day what it means to completely trust in Him. With each piece of “bad news,” I have determined to keep my heart firm, trusting in Him. Some of this news has immediate effect in my life, some will be worked out over time. I continue to see that I have everything I need for today and I trust my God for tomorrow.
 
What I needed that day was this Word from the Lord to sustain me and He provided it before I even knew I would need it!
 
“When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?  Psalm 56:3, 4
 
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.”  Proverbs 3:5

​By Peggie Potter
Genesis 25:34 – Back in the ancient days, the firstborn son was entitled to the birthright. Esau was always more interested in immediate gratification than waiting for his inheritance. Neither he nor Jacob were perfect by any means. Esau was like many today: wanting satisfaction & now! Jacob was sly & calculating. He gave his brother stew to eat in exchange for his birthright!

We have a birthright today & it doesn't depend on our birth order.
Our birthright, salvation, was purchased for us on Calvary over 2,000 years ago. We have only to accept it for ourselves & then wait for our inheritance in glory forever with God!
​
It is very sad how many simply don't care & go about every day with their eyes & hearts on the world & today's cares. And so, they despise their birthright! 

Please remember 1 Cor 2:9: eye has not seen, nor ear has heard, & no mind imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him.
That is our birthright & it is absolutely worth waiting for. So don't be an Esau!

By Rebecca Vickery
 “Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take up My yoke and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”  Matthew 11:28-30
I have this tendency to take on other people’s burdens.  This can be a good thing in some ways.  After all, we are supposed to bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2), so it seems good for me to do that.  I am lightening the burden for someone else by hearing them, coming alongside them. But then I keep their burdens.  I fret about them.  I try to figure out ways to fix the burden for the person.  Sounds great, right?  Except I can actually do very little to help people out of their burdens.  Sure, I can help with tangible things.  But I can do very little to help people with their real burdens; the things that weigh so heavy on the soul.  I hold onto them and feel their weight. 
I take on my children’s burdens, my husband’s burdens, my friends’ burdens.  And keep them.
At the same time, I have my own burdens to bear.  Inability to lose weight.  Basing my value on a number on a scale or a size.  Chronic health battles leading to battles with insurance companies.  Not finding my worth in the decisions and outcomes of those same insurance companies.  Marital struggles.  Struggles with loneliness.  Unmet connection needs.  The list goes on. 
Sometimes I can get lost in the fray.  I lose sleep trying to figure out ways to fix things.  My things.  Other people’s things.  To help.  And sure, I pray.  I pray about those things and ask God to take care of them.  I give them to Jesus.  And then upon finding these problems not instantly fixed, I take them back so that I can worry about them some more. 
The struggle is real. 
In my family, we play on those words and say, “the struggle of Israel.”  In this case, it is literally like the struggle of Israel.  Jacob wrestled with the Angel of the Lord (the LORD, it later says), and His hip was wrenched in the fight.  He wrestled ALL night long.  Imagine what it would have been like for Jacob (Israel) if he simply stopped wrestling.  He might have gotten to sleep.  Maybe his hip wouldn’t have been wrenched in the process.  Maybe we’re not meant to win that kind of wrestling.  How often have I wrestled with an issue that I’ve brought to God, and played tug of war holding so tightly that I just end up keeping it as a burden, when I could have found rest for my soul?
In the past few years, I have been learning to actually give these things to God more readily.  I have actively sought to recognize the things I’ve held onto for so long when I should have let go.  God has allowed me to see how holding on has taken a toll.  Gradually, my fingers have released their death grip on the burden I’m holding. 
Some of us have held onto certain burdens for far too long.  The process of learning to let go can be painful.  But we were never meant to bear these burdens alone.  And in some cases, we were not meant to bear them at all.
“Come to me.”  We are meant to come to Jesus with our heavy burdens.  I have been weary and heavy laden for far too long.  I have been anxious about many things.  But I want to take up the yoke of Jesus and learn from Him.  I want to be gentle and humble in heart.  I want to be able to throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily (way more easily than I care to admit) entangles.  I want to untangle myself from the burdens I am holding and give them over to the One who is more than able to bear the weight of them.  And I want to find rest for my soul that only comes from surrender.
 

By Joyce Pelletier
     1 Peter 1:5-7 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge, and to knowledge; self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness love.
            All of my Christian journey has been filled with so much kindness from my brothers and sisters in Christ. There is a key ingredient in where this kindness comes from; the Holy Spirit.
            Nearly ten years ago, Maurice had his aortic valve replaced. It was only his second major surgery in his lifetime. We had every reason to believe that it should all go well.
            The surgical procedure went quite well. Following recovery, he was sent to ICU, which is quite normal. Two days later he was placed in the step-down unit, and that’s when things went sour. The problem was not the surgery, but the medication that not only kept him somewhat pain free but also with an element of confusion. Little did the doctor realize that the medication caused him to be anxious, irrational and restless.
I was with him soon after he first arrived from ICU. He became confused at where he was and why. We were sitting in his room when he started having hallucinations, like he was sitting in the doctor’s waiting room or thinking he wasn’t sick at all, a door to a closet turned into a refrigerator. This didn’t help the situation we were experiencing.
            The nurses came to his room and asked me to step out of the room so they could discern what the problem was. I was quite concerned at that point. I started pacing the hall and praying that God would send someone to help. As soon as I prayed that prayer, I turned around and I saw a familiar face coming down the hall towards me. It was one of our dearest friends.
Art listened to my concerns and simply said “It will be okay!” He also told me why he was there. He felt led by the Lord go to the hospital to see Maurice. I was so amazed. There was no question, and I knew God sent Art. Things started to turn around as the doctors decided to stop giving him that medicine.
            Art spent several hours with us as Maurice went through the struggle to figure it all out. They put an alarm on his bed as well as moved him to the room nearest the nurse’s station.
Art was there for us. We talked about many things. Finally, mid-afternoon, Art went home. By that time the medication was wearing off and I felt safe enough to return home to get some rest myself.
            Art showed us kindness, comfort, calmness, and love. This revealed what his true friendship was. The surgery turned out successful. The struggle at the hospital was somewhat traumatic. But God’s kindness through our friend, Art, gave me the courage to not be afraid. Somehow also knowing the clarity of each part of the situation, somehow calmed me to know God was in control.
            So many times, I’ve had the opportunity to be in a place consoling a friend or run into someone who needed a special word of comfort. For me it was a totally unexpected and unplanned occurrence. Realizing that it was Jesus who sent me, it started to make sense.  We often hear the word, “God-incidences” related to this kind of event. It’s then we know God sends us to someone such as this that is unexpected.
            It is so important to realize, we can’t only be givers of God’s comfort and word. There are so many times for us to receive this as well. If each of us only give, who’s there to receive? Role reversal is so valuable in learning how to give and receive. Jesus gave all the time, but there was a time when He received, when Mary washed his feet. 

            

James 4:7 says
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you.

Submit

Since I was a wee one I have had trouble with submit. And surrender. And obey. But mostly submit. I have heard stories about when I was small and my dad would say "don't touch my guitar". Every time he picked it up to play it was full of crayons or toys.
As I have grown I have learned to dislike the word even more. As a teen I remember the fear of being followed by a police car. So much so that I would pull into the nearest parking lot and pretend I was going into the store to avoid driving in front of them. Not that I was doing anything wrong, but I had this deep fear of authority.
As I grew, life taught me that I could rely on no on but myself. At age 19, I had two small children as a divorced woman.
I was stubbornly defiant refusing any sort of help from anyone.

God repeatedly showed me His goodness and grace as I fought Him at every turn. At times I imagine Him rolling His eyes and sighing as I willfully pushed my own agenda instead of accepting His prompting. Yet gently and patiently He waited... every time. Not once withholding the blessings or His gifts because of my stubbornness. Even in the hardest places I can see now that He was with me. That He protected me, even shielded me from harm.
So many times I heard "get out of my way" when He was doing something in someone's life.
As I have slowly learned to let God lead, to respond to His gentle nudges, and to be open to His greater plan for my life, I have seen things grow and blossom as I could never have imagined. There is no joy quite like that which I feel when giving to another at His prompting or seeing Him moving in a life I have been praying for. His plan is so much greater on a seriously grander scale than mine could ever be. If I just submit to His will.
I have learned that submit has a new meaning to me now. I can accept that His plan is for a greater good. To build me and grow me but not to harm me. As it turns out it wasn't all about me after all.
It is so rewarding to see the growth in all those around me as we all have grown in community.  I can even see now that what was once referred to by others as stubbornness or defiance is really the gift of not giving up on others. A gift that He can use for good.

Prayer:
Heavenly Father,
Thank you for never giving up. Thank you that you can use all things for good and you never let go of me. That your plans are so much greater than anything I can dream or hope for. I am grateful that you desire your very best for me. That when I follow your lead you create divine appointments and bring blessings after blessings. Help me to submit to your will in all things, to allow you to advance your kingdom.
In Jesus precious name.
Amen

BY JOYCE PELLETIER

Continuing with Psalm 139:17-18:

How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them!
Were, I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand – when I awake, I am still with you.

Have you ever considered counting the grains of sand on a beach? Or in a cup? You are probably thinking, “that is impossible.” You’d be correct on that assessment!

Does it mean we don’t comprehend it? No, if anything, the truth is we’d all be hard pressed to even consider doing that. Now, if it were cups of sand to fill a bucket, well, that is possible. However, this is not what this Psalm says.  When we consider that God already knows the numbers, He doesn’t have to count them. What is being said, is that it is a countless number to state, but God’s thoughts are far greater than the grains of sand. The number guess would indicate endless thoughts. How awesome is that?

Recently, I had an issue with the control button for my implant for my pain management in my spinal cord. It prompted me to do an update on the control. Following it asked for a Passcode, which I didn’t have before. Thinking that they were indicating that it was required. I put a code in, then forgot to write it down. When I went to lower the number for the strength, well, I could not do it because of the missing Passcode. Another problem is that it was a Friday, and no one was available until Monday. Stressor #2
This put me in a medical dilemma. One I didn’t anticipate. Well, that morning anxiety and stress built up and the next day came to a head, because the pain was increasing. I contacted the company responsible for this lovely device and they couldn’t help me. I could not get into the program because they had my incorrect phone number on file to send a code.  Stressor #3.

After speaking with the third technician, she suggested going to the Apple Store to have the control wiped out of its programs, so they could have me go through another encounter with the rep. It seemed like there was one thing after another.

​I followed their recommendation and contacted the rep in charge of my case and he was busy all day so we never connected to get this resolved until the next afternoon. We worked on the phone to correct this and after putting the login info in a number too many to count, like the sand. So, we gave up. He was sending me a temporary control until we could get together to see what the problem is. The device never showed up. A week after his attempt to send me a temp controller, we talked.  He decided to overnight another control and once I got it, we’d get it connected on the phone.

The next morning the control arrived 5 minutes after its designated time of arrival. After texting the rep, he called me to set it up for me to use. Eureka! I am now on track again and they will fix the original control, once they are in the area to get together. From the moment I was back on the program, I felt all the stress fall off me like a walk on a rainy day.

All through this ordeal I know God is walking with me. He had lessons to teach me.  The day I had to drive to Williston, was sunny and the air was fresh, mild and the whole time coming home, I knew God used that little journey to show me that He was in control, not the little 2 X 4” iPod device to push the buttons.

Now that this pesky incident is behind me. I look at Psalm 139:18 read what it says that when I am awake, I am still with God. All these little things to remind me I do not walk alone. Also, that even though things don’t get done on “My Scheduling,” God’s schedule works better. This three week delay after delay, ordeal is all normal again. All these lessons that God allows seem pesky for the moment, but if I would consider the grains of sand, I am lifted out of yet another “pot-hole” on the Highway of life, knowing my GPS is controlled by our amazing Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Insight from a cup of countless grains of sand!