I love this painted card submission by Shirley Ginter. In fact, it is practically perfect in every way! Love for Digging Deep, for the season, for all of you, and for the Lord shows through in every stroke! 
I love the season. Little lessons pop up all over the place. My husband keeps saying, “There’s a blog post in that!” Earlier this week I was putting up some lights by the front door. I had to try and light up a bush and then a wreath that was a couple of feet above the bush. 
You know you really never want the lights that are in between your illuminations to show (when it’s a decoration on your house). I mean you want those stray lights that are not really outlining anything to be hidden. Sometimes you just start a new strand on each thing you’re illuminating. But sometimes you run out of outlets or your strand of lights is just too long not to use somewhere else. So you end up with a little row of lights just dangling in the air here between the wreath and the bush.
As I was putting black tape around those stray lights, a little light (no pun intended) went off in my head. It was next to impossible to completely hide those little lights with black tape. I’d think I had it and then back away and see that the brightness was escaping through some tiny little crack between two pieces of tape. I’d see a little sparkle coming through a spot of adhesive.
That’s the way it is with our Matthew 5 light. “We are,” as Jesus said, “the light of the world.” There is blackness all around us. It’a a blackness of sin that’s hard to penetrate and the entities of blackness stick together. Like that tape, they try to extinguish the light. But it’s hard to hide the light when it’s Christianity. Because of the boldness, the brightness and the beauty of Christ, His light in us penetrates that blackness in which the world tries to envelope us. The little bright light, that you are, escapes the black tape, and someone sees you in the dark void.
You are the light of the world, a city set on a hill that cannot be hidden.
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
This little light of mine…I’m going to let it shine.
But I do know her. Remember, I said that if you made me laugh, there are extra points? Well, I did laugh when I watched this video. I also know how very far out of her comfort zone Mrs. Maxine had to go to sing this song for 11.5 thousand group members to access forever. I don’t know if she handcrafted each pair of those dangly legs or not, but, if she did…well, let’s just say she was serious about this entry.
Yesterday, I had the chance to travel with Glenn to the West Fayetteville, TN church to a missions day. To say, I was encouraged by the works supported by this comparatively small church, would be an understatement. On Saturday night, I had a tough time deciding whether or not to travel out with Glenn to this event. It’s such a busy season. I’m so glad that I did. I heard about extensive work in India and Africa. I heard about the faithful brethren in Ukraine, who are living in a war siren zone all of the time. I saw pictures of the children sleeping on the tile floors in the areas of bomb refuge. But these children are watching their parents continue to evangelize, even through the horrors of war. Over lunch, I had a conversation with Brian Hall, who is using his skills as a printer to make and take thousands of books from libraries of US preachers to the places where they are needed all over the English-speaking nation of Guyana. Overall, it was a day of conviction for me…conviction that when we each use our unique situations and talents for souls, God gives the increase.
One more thing I heard over lunch. A missionary was telling me how that, in his travels, in a deep south US state, he came´ across a congregation of God’s people who had never even heard of the Gospel Broadcasting Network. It was, actually, in an area where there are lots of diggers. Well, if you’re a digger and you haven’t checked out the Network, you need to go and bookmark the site or download the app! Nobody should be digging without the resources that are there! They are all free. There’s never a charge for any GBN book, e-book, commentary or recording. Let me repeat: Never a charge!
Happy Thanksgiving! I can’t wait to have a crowd, a turkey, and chaos in this house later in the week!
Happy Thanksgiving. Thank Him every day! Pray without ceasing. Always give the eminently qualified “Care-taker” your petitions and your praise (1 Peter 5:7). All my life He has been faithful! But that’s not even a nano-second in the stretch of His faithfulness. I know His faithfulness to me started before the foundation of the world and continues to the throne (Revelation 13:8). All of us live in that nanosecond of His eternal mercies.
There’s never a passing day, for me,