"I'd like you to join me on Wednesdays as together we examine ideas and concepts on how to truly Live Life and experience all this life has to offer. I believe that when we walk with God, He enables us to live beyond the limits we see ahead on our path, growing and stretching us to heights and lengths we never thought possible! Please come along and see what God has is store for us on this journey through life!"
Love, Linda

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

KEY SA#12: ALONE NO MORE


Merry Christmas!  I pray that you had a blessed day remembering  and celebrating God's amazing gift of His precious Son, sent to this world as a newborn Baby!
Babies and puppies have been a huge part of my world this past month.  Well, actually one baby and one puppy.  :)  Our first precious grand-daughter, Baby B, was born in November.  And in December we got a new puppy!   So I have been cuddling and studying newborns recently.
A couple of weeks ago, I was privileged to babysit Baby B for the first time all by myself.  I held her for three hours straight.  What a joy!  My daughter, the baby's mommy, greeted me at the door with the sleeping infant and asked with a smile if I would rather she put Baby B in her crib or if I wanted to hold her instead.  What kind of a question is that to ask an eager grandmother?  Of course, my daughter knew the answer, and lovingly placed the sleeping child in my arms.
I was informed on the location of the bottle and a time frame in which to expect the family to return from celebrating Big C's birthday with his friends.  Little c ran to plant a kiss on Baby B's forehead and they all left.  Of course, before they even pulled out of the driveway, the sleeping child awoke and expressed her puzzlement at the new situation in extremely vocal terms.  But Grandma walked, cuddled, patted and chatted with her for a while.  I noticed that hearing my voice seemed to cheer her the most.  So we had a little talk about the wonderful family God had given to her.  I told her of the awesome God who uniquely designed her, loved her more than anyone else ever could and had a wonderful plan for her future.  I told her how much I loved her.   She was comforted by my words and slept again peacefully.
Several weeks later, when we got our adorable but extremely lively and vocal new puppy, Sonja, whose older "sister," Krissa, has yet to be overly delighted about the new dynamics of our household, I was concerned that none of us would get any sleep that first night.  My experience in the past with new puppies had set a clear precedent.  But my husband had a great idea!  He put Sonja in her little kennel and placed the front of her kennel right up to the front of Krissa's big kennel.  They were sort of "nose to nose" . . . you get the picture?  Well, the little darling quieted down as soon as the lights were turned off and slept contentedly . . . and quietly . . . all through the night!
So what have I discovered over my musings of these two events?  Even a brand new baby . . . even a newborn puppy . . . needs to know that they are not alone.  God instilled in each one of His creations the need for companionship . . . for relationship.  In the words of the old familiar song, no one is "an island."  I believe that one of the greatest fears we have as humans is that of being abandoned.  Babies need to be touched and talked to; adults need to be heard and understood.  The deepest need of the human heart is resolved by Christmas.  Last week, I talked about the need for us to be forgiven of sin, to be transferred out of the Kingdom of Darkness to God's Kingdom of Light.
One phrase of the Christmas carol,  "O Little Town of Bethlehem," speaks especially to this concept:  "The hopes and fears of all the years are met in Thee tonight.'"  The result of living in the Kingdom of Light is that we are never alone.  Once we become a child of God, we will never be alone again.  Ever!  God promised in Matthew 28:20b,  "I am with you always, even to the end of the age."   Family members may leave us by rejection or death; friends may move away or let us down; but our heavenly Father will never leave nor forsake us!
If you are His beloved child, celebrate your personal relationship with Him today!  And if you do not yet belong to God, I invite you to open the best Christmas present ever . . . the one God extents to you this very day . . . by asking Jesus to forgive you for your sins and become the Lord and King of your life!
This is the last blog on blogger.com.  In 2013, I will exclusively write my blog on my new word press site at www.lindaruthstai.com!  If you haven't already done so, please go there, click on "blog," and sign up to receive future blogs directly to your email.  Since we'll be journeying through the Bible the whole year, you may not want to miss any of them!  
I invite you to read through the Bible with me in the new year and would love to hear from you if this is already an established habit of yours.  If not, there are many plans available to help guide you through it.  My personal favorite plan is to read from my chronological Bible which has the days' readings already organized in an easy to read method.  
See you next year !  :)
copyright 2012 Linda Ruth Stai, author and inspirational speaker

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

KEY SA#11: THE REAL HEART OF CHRISTMAS


As I write this it is only six days until Christmas.  Actually, it is only three days until we celebrate our family party with our kids and grandkids!  And I am very excited about it; we don't have all our children together very often and I look forward to this special time set aside to celebrate Jesus' birth as a family.  I've heard that whatever Christmas Day brings, the only important thing is to honor Jesus.  And that is true, but as far as I am concerned, every day is a special day to honor Jesus, and Christmas is a time to celebrate Him with loved ones.  Either with family, or our Christian brothers and sisters or to reach out to those who still need to become part of His kingdom!
Speaking of kingdoms, this week has brought a tragedy that is affecting our whole country.  The Connecticut massacre of elementary school children has been first and foremost in the headlines, as it should be.  Many of us have agonized and cried with the tormented families of the victims, over the evil present in our culture that is beyond comprehension.
I wish I could take this time to answer the desperate questions we have asked ourselves, each other and God.  Like:  "Why does God allow such evil?"  "How could anyone hurt innocent children?"  "What can we do to prevent another similar disaster?"
But I don't have the answers; the only thing I can do is point you to the One who does.  In my Bible study, The View From Eternity, which is a companion to my novel, The Rose Journal, one lesson focuses on two spiritual kingdoms.  I quote from the study:  "The Bible makes it clear that two kingdoms co-exist in this world; the Kingdom of Darkness and the Kingdom of Light.  Each person is traveling toward eternity in one of these kingdoms."
Obviously, the horror of the killing this week is an example of what can happen when an individual journeys in the Kingdom of Darkness and is influenced by evil.  But we cannot blame God for one man's actions.  Way back at the beginning of time, Adam and Even made the choice to disobey God and the consequence of that choice was to allow sin to enter the perfect world that God originally intended for His children.  But God didn't leave us to wallow in our sin and be destroyed by it.  He gave each individual another choice.  Because of God's tremendous love .  . . which also is beyond our comprehension . . .  He was willing to give His only Son, Jesus Christ, to be born into this world of hurt and suffering, for the purpose of paying for the sin of all humanity once and for all on the cross.  Because of God's great sacrifice, you and I can confess our sin and accept Jesus' payment for those sins in our place.  If we do that, God will immediately transfer us from the Kingdom of Darkness into His beautiful and eternal Kingdom of Light!
As children of His Kingdom of Light, we have a future out of this world!   Jesus says in John 16:33, "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace.  In the world you will have tribulation, but take courage;  I have overcome the world."  Our eternal future will have no more tears, suffering or death.  God's promise in Revelation 21:4 says, "and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away."
As we prepare for this Christmas season, let's us remember that God did do something about evil.  That is what Christmas is all about! It's not about decorated trees, gifts, stockings, food; although our family enjoys all of that as a part of the celebration.  But the heart of Christmas goes far deeper, to touch the heart of each person, and to reveal and renew what is in our hearts.  This holiday is not merely a time for fun and frivolity, but it is a time to remember how God changed the world with His precious gift of a Baby.  It is up to each one of to choose which Kingdom we will live in.  Satan is temporarily the prince of this world, so if we fail to choose, we exist as a part of the Dark Kingdom by default.  Are you ready, if you haven't done so yet, to surrender to His ways for your life .  . .  to hold His hand and trust His love?
I firmly believe that God cries with us when we cry . . . that He feels our pain.  And He is always present, ready to offer the Hope that only He can give.
copyright 2012 Linda Ruth Stai, author and inspirational speaker

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

KEY SA#10: COVENANTS AND PROMISES


It appears that I have taken many detours on my way through the Road in the Land of Abundant Living this past month!  Not going where I had originally intended, I found that God's plan was better than mine.  A fact which is always true.  So today, with Christmas approaching closer and constant on my mind as I prepare for it, I want to share thoughts about covenants and promises.  If you missed the last two blogs where I shared about the rainbow God gave us on the beach in Mexico, you may want to refer to the blog archives.
I've been thinking about covenants lately.  God instituted His first covenant, I believe, with Noah and His family after the flood had destroyed the entire population of the earth except for them.  They found refuge on the Ark because of Noah's faith in God's provision and his obedience to God's command to build the ark.
This first covenant was God's promise that He would never again "curse the ground on account of man . . . and will never again destroy every living thing," (Genesis 8:21) "while the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."  (Genesis 8:22)  The sign of His promise was the first rainbow which God displayed in the sky after the flood.  Up to that time, rain had not yet appeared to water the earth.  Instead the ground was watered by rivers and mists.  (see Genesis 2:6 and 10)  Can you imagine, since the first rain sent by God caused a flood that covered the whole earth, how fearful people may have been each time it began to rain afterwards?  A few raindrops falling from the sky might have turned many hearts to terror!  But God does not want His children to fear.  So He gave His promise that whenever we see a rainbow, we are reminded that a flood will never again destroy the entire earth.
God always keeps His promises.  And one of his greatest promises is the one He made to Adam and Eve in the garden after they had disobeyed and fallen into sin.  God told them that one day He would send a Savior in Genesis 3:15 when he spoke this curse to Satan:  "and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed (my explanation:  her seed refers to Jesus Christ); He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel. (my explanation: referring to Satan's later attempted to destroy Jesus on the cross)."
This month, we celebrate the culmination of that promise with the birth . . . the gift . . . of God's only Son, sent to this world as the life of God, Himself, in the form of a human baby.  And 33 years later, Jesus spoke of the fulfillment of God's covenant with Abraham by His words, "This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood."  Luke 22:20   Through Jesus' blood, we are given an opportunity to share in His new covenant, referred to in 2 Corinthians 3:6, "(God) who made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit . . . "   And it is brought together by the writer of Hebrews in 8:6, "But He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He (Jesus) is also the "mediator of a better covenant, which has been exacted on better promises."
Obviously, there is so much more to be said about covenants, and a greater explanation can be found in Hebrews 8, if you want to pursue this topic.  But for now, it is enough to focus on God's promise being fulfilled during this season of Christmas.
God always keeps His promises.
PLANS FOR MY NEW YEAR'S BLOG:  My habit of many years past has been to read my chronological Bible all the way through during one year.  Every year  . . . month . . . day (!) God gives me new thoughts and insights from the depth of His Word.  And I have barely scratched the surface!  So my plan, beginning in January, is to write down some thoughts that occur to me as I go through the corresponding passages in my chronological Bible.  I could do this for the rest of my life and not make a dent in the wisdom found therein.  Maybe I will!  So I invite you to stick with me as together we dig deep into the bottomless pit of God's Wisdom!
ANOTHER NOTE:  This may be my last blog sent from blogger.com.  So if you want to join me on my new site and not have any disruption in receiving my blogs, please go to http://www.lindaruthstai.com and sign up to receive them in your inbox!  I will also continue to make them available weekly on Facebook.  See you next Wednesday, one week before, as I tell my grandsons, "the best birthday party of them all!"



Wednesday, December 5, 2012

KEY SA #9: NO RAIN; NO RAINBOW


I wanted to insert a photo here of the rainbow we saw at the beach wedding last month, but can't figure out how to do it!  Maybe before this blog is published, I will have found a way to do it.  Hope so!
The day our oldest son, K, married his beautiful bride, M, was the only day it rained at our beautiful resort weekend in Mexico.  But after a few preliminary sprinkles in the afternoon, God held the rain off so we got a bunch of great beach photos and were able to celebrate the marriage ceremony with the bride and groom under the white, flowing canopy on the beach without getting wet.  The bride's father is a pastor, so he preformed the sacred ceremony.  In the middle of his message, just as he was talking about the marriage "covenant," a spectacular rainbow appeared in the sky, just off to the side.  We stopped the ceremony to look at it and appreciate what seemed to be God's personal blessing on their union.
Immediately after the conclusion of the ceremony, rain began to pelt us.  We all ran to the nearest beach cabana for shelter and squeezed together sharing much coziness and joyful hilarity.  It was a great "picture moment!"  We were all soaked and hairdos were ruined, but the rain stopped again and we got a few more "fun" beach photos.
Before the dinner and reception, we had some free time, enough for me to "restructure" my hair-do that already was plastered with hair spray and for my husband, Gary, to dry off his shirt with the hair dryer.  He has such creative ideas!  :)  This setting for the reception and dinner had to be changed due to more wind and rain, but we were moved to the lovely "ocean room" in the hotel and had so much fun!  A beach dinner would have been romantic, but I don't see how anyone could have enjoyed the evening any more than we did, warm and dry inside the building.
My other daughter-in-law, K, shared a wise comment that day, "No rain; no rainbow."  So true.  God always knows exactly what we need.  If I had been in charge of the weather that day, I would have selected a forecast of no precipitation to provide for a calm, peaceful evening on the beach.  But were it not for the rain, we would not have had God's special blessing of a meaningful rainbow in the middle of the marriage ceremony.  And I do believe the the run to the cabana and the dinner/dance inside was more fun and a better bonding experience for all of us than the beach reception would have provided.
So help me remember, Father God, when You send or allow the "rains" and "storms" of life, that You are also in charge of the rainbows, and remind me that many of the "rainbow blessings" in my own life would not have been possible were it not for the "trials of rain."