Gemstones of the Heart

Catherine Baker

Description

Do you know your heart matters to God and that He has put everything inside you to live out of His love for you.

In this book the author describes what was going on in her heart during her journey of getting to know God. She shares openly part of her life’s journey in this process through personal experiences and poems. It is meant to be an encouragement for those seeking to know their own heart and the heart of God towards those whom He created.

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Inspirational
• Themes
• Subjects
• Religious
• Forgiveness
• Gemstone
• Poetry
• Garden
• Heart
• Gemstones
• Love
• Fruit

Informations

• Publié par: WestBow Press
• Date de parution: 10 juillet 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781664298378
• Langue: English

Extrait

GEMSTONES OF THE HEART
 
 
 
 
CATHERINE BAKER
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Copyright © 2023 Catherine Baker.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.
 
 
WestBow Press
A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.westbowpress.com
844-714-3454
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
 
ISBN: 978-1-9736-9887-6 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-9837-8 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2023909568
 
 
WestBow Press rev. date: 6/30/2023
DEDICATION
I dedicate this book first to my Heavenly Father and then to those who may have received a wrong image of Father God’s heart towards them. It is also dedicated to those who desire to go on the adventure of discovering God’s heart for them and to get to know their own heart better.
CONTENTS
Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1     How it all began
Chapter 2     Gemstones of the Heart
Chapter 3     Special gemstones
Chapter 4     Knowledge and Wisdom
Chapter 5     The Heart
Chapter 6     The garden of my Heart
Chapter 7     Poems about the Heart
Heart Bypass
Lonely Heart
Heart Connection
Expectant Heart
Forgiving and Accepting Heart
Secret Place of the Heart
Chapter 8     The awakening
Loving Father
Jesus my friend
Walking with the Spirit of Truth
Adam
Eve
Joy
Journey to Love
Celebration of Joy
The joy of the Lord is my strength (song)
Chapter 9     Corona Crisis
Reflections of Life
Courage
Reflection - First Love
Hope
Children of God
Knowledge versus Wisdom
Beloved
I Am
Captive to Captivated
Restoration
Chapter 10     A Unique Design
Chapter 11     Restoration and Healing
Chapter 12     Unconditional Love
Chapter 13     Creativity and Identity
Chapter 14     Conclusion
Grace
Endnotes
PREFACE
“He has put a new song in my mouth – Praise to our God.” (Psalm 40:3)
I started writing poems many years ago, to express what was going on in my heart. I never considered sharing them with a wider audience because they are very personal. A few close friends said that when they listened to my poems their hearts were touched. Also, when I wrote poems for people for special situations, they said I had a gift to express in a poem how their hearts were feeling. This was something they themselves could not put into words in the way in which I could. They also said that there were probably many others who would benefit from hearing my poems. I was not sure whether I wanted to share my heart’s expressions with others but these friends encouraged me and so I started writing this book.
In life we may have many situations that bring stress, disappointments, and sadness but we also have moments of delight and joy. Our hearts need to express all these emotions one way or another. I chose to express them in my poems but there are many creative ways you can do this, depending on who you are. What I did find was that when my emotions were expressed in this way it left space in my heart for peace and rest to come in. When I had come to a place of peace, I was more able to sense the wisdom I needed to take the right action.
My poems reveal God’s grace and faithfulness to me over the years. This book is unashamedly autobiographical in that it reveals what was going on in my heart during my personal journey of learning to receive from God and that Father God cares about my heart.
As an older woman who has discovered a lot of wisdom in her life’s walk with God, I decided to share part of my story together with some of the expressive poems so that they can be a blessing to others. God loves and cares about the hearts of all His children.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to acknowledge with grateful thanks the assistance of my husband in the proofreading of the text, not only for correction, but also for readability and consistency. My thanks go out to my daughters who have blessed me more than they realize especially Angelina who not only helped me with ideas in the preparing for the cover design, she also produced the beautiful cover for this book.
I am thankful for the time spent with the many people in Ellel Ministries International and Ellel East who have played a big part in my life and walk with God. I would also like to thank Hour of Power, Father Heart Ministries, Fathers Royal Love Ministries, Brilliant Perspectives and lastly Life Connexion for introducing me to Biblical meditations. There are many other people and organizations too numerous to mention who have contributed to my journey. I am thankful and grateful to the many believers I have met over the years who have set an example to me of the importance of waiting on and trusting in God in all seasons of life.
INTRODUCTION
This book describes part of my journey of discovering who Father God really is and who He wants to be for me. How I could receive His love for myself and others and to be the person I was originally made to be, not the child I was raised to be. I believe this journey will continue as long as I am here on earth because, like a diamond, there seem to be so many facets to the greatness of God’s love and goodness for me to discover.
While struggling with some of the challenges I had to face in my life, I started writing poems to express myself and in them I connected to a peace deep within that helped me receive the wisdom to deal with the challenges of the day. These poems have been a bit like David’s Psalms although I cannot claim to be as good a writer as he was. They were a way of expressing the confusing emotions that arose when I sat still with God. In that stillness I started to receive encouragement that brought peace into my heart and guidance for my next step in life. I wrote many poems because of the need to express what was going on in my heart. The poems in this book are a selection taken from a period of 20 years or more.
The recurrence of similar emotions in my poems and the same encouragement at the end of each one was showing me that it was alright and even beneficial to be real with God about my disappointments and hurts. I then had to let them go to make space to receive comfort and peace to go on further. What I was doing was coming to the God of grace to help me in my time of need.
“Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16)
Over the years, my poems have developed into devotionals, biblical meditations, and thankful prayers. Even though my heart had been affected by many negative experiences in life, God’s grace, and love for me has and still is restoring me from the effects of these experiences as I constantly look to Him.
 
ONE
HOW IT ALL BEGAN
My journey to discover who this God was who was interested in my heart began over 40 years ago. I was told a story about Francis of Assisi, an Italian friar known for his love and simplicity of life. He was supposed to have said that God had hidden all of Himself inside man, everything man needed to live the life God had planned for him, but he never ever thought of looking there for that life. (Man, here refers to mankind, male and female.)
I couldn’t imagine that the God of the universe would want to hide himself and all the mysteries of life in me. It was a bit too much for my mind to take in at that time. So, my journey to seek the God of love other people said was inside me started. I have always felt different, as if I did not fit in anywhere, so my life has always felt like a war zone, a hostile place not a place of love, peace, and joy. That is what motivated me to discover how to live in a kingdom of love that was supposed to be in me even when the spirit of injustice and other disturbing emotions seemed to be shouting louder. It was desperation at the time that drove me to learn to know God and find a better way of living.
When I was a child, I remember playing the game “happy families” but for me it was just a game and not a reality. I did not have a life where there was peace and harmony in the family and I did not know how to bring peace into my own heart, never mind into my family.
After my first encounter with God, the topic of the heart inspired me to go to The Keswick Convention, an annual gathering of Christians in the north of England. There I heard a talk about a loving father who loved His children and wanted peace and harmony in His family.