Jessie's Corner

Becky Gillette

Description

This collection of meditations uses lesser-known scripture passages to explore ways to create a personal relationship with God and demonstrate that small acts can affect you in big ways.
Quite often, when we read the Bible, we see the big themes that we have heard over the years: do right, don’t do wrong, love your neighbor, and turn the other cheek. Jessie’s Corner takes some of the less well-known scriptures and shows how they too can impact your life. Sometimes the big themes find support in the small acts that we do every day. These essays show applications of those small pockets of wisdom in our daily lives.
Some days, the best we can say is that we’ve managed to stay away from sharp objects or explosives. It’s possible to take those difficult days and lighten them by giving hope and showing that we do not go through them alone. Everyone feels discouraged and hopeless at times. It takes courage and faith to do something while being afraid. You can find courage and faith by connecting with God as a friend.
This collection of meditations uses lesser-known scripture passages to explore ways to create a personal relationship with God and demonstrate that small acts can affect you in big ways.

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Biblical Meditations
• Philosophie et théologie
• Humor
• Religión
• Help! (película)
• Philosophy
• Help
• Christian
• Life

Informations

• Publié par: WestBow Press
• Date de parution: 26 juin 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781664299856
• Langue: English

Extrait

JESSIE’S Corner
 
Something To Think About
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Becky Gillette
 
 
 
 
 
 


Copyright © 2023 Becky Gillette.
 
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.
 
 
WestBow Press
A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan
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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.
 
Interior image credits:
Phyllis Brack from Dilly & Doc Creative Studio, Great Bend, Kansas
 
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.
 
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from THE MESSAGE, copyright © 1993, Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™
Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.
 
Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
 
Scripture quotations marked AMP are taken from the Amplified® Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission
 
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from THE MESSAGE, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
 
ISBN: 978-1-6642-9986-3 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-9987-0 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-9985-6 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2023908997
 
 
 
WestBow Press rev. date:  06/26/2023
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Spring
Getting Married
Bloom Where You’re Planted
Save Your Energy
Into the Wild
Guilt Is a Heavy Burden
Grace
The Keys
Hang In There
What Does the Master Want?
Who Do You Follow?
An Owner’s Manual
Muleheaded
Ask for Help
The Reading of the Will
What Kind of Faith Can Heal?
Sow Accordingly
Commissioned By Whom?
It Takes One to Know One
Why Can’t You Listen!
A Good Place to Be in Times of Trouble
Can I Help You?
Fight, Flight, or Freeze
Growing Pains
How Did You Become You?
How Do We Know If It’s Love?
How Smart Are We?
Moms
Summer
How Much Are You Worth?
We Don’t Know What We Don’t Know
A Thing Worth Doing
I’m Getting There
And What a People We Are
Nobodies and Somebodies
Relationships
God Chose You
Thank You Anyway
The Importance of a Good Storyteller
Love Is the Best
Generosity
Any Day Now, Lord
Like an Atom
Providing a Helping Hand
Who’s Driving the Train?
How to Be Noticed in a Crowd
So, What Now?
The Perfect Spa
Actions vs. Words
Faith
Who Is the Real You?
Being Civilized
Blowing in the Wind
Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick
Fall
Strangers and Angels
If All Else Fails, Be Kind
Peace
Washed in God’s Love
The Strong Man
Buried in the Dirt
Who Will Judge?
Time to Break Out
Married Again
The Mark of Passion
Momentum Counts for a Lot
Wide Receivers
Great Responsibility
The Prodigal Dad
Why Are We Here?
Grrr
A Promise of Rest
A Good City
Family Stars
Everything Will Be OK
At Some Point, We Have to Leave the Classroom
Are You Sure?
Let’s Try This Again
A Holy War
What Happened?
What Have We Done?
Winter
Wondrous Surprises
What Does God Tell You?
Weddings and Marriages
The Hound of Heaven
What to Do with Disasters
Make It Personal
Generic Products
Heaven
How Can We Be Healed?
Flattery vs. Compliments
Personally
A Blessing for February
There Are Preachers, and There Are Preachers
Don’t Worry, Be Happy
How Do We Know What We Believe?
Bragging Rights
The Building vs. the Builder
What Else Do We Need?
What Do We Do with This?
Who’s Your Best Friend?
I’ve Got This
We’re Fine, but I Can’t Say the Same about the Ship
Take Heart
A Holy Terror
Who’s in Charge, Anyway?
What Did You Say?
 
In Closing
Preface
Several years ago, I decided to read the Bible from back to front. I discovered that I had read the Bible from front to back so many times that I was anticipating the next verses and not really paying attention to what they said.
I started in Revelation 22 and read a chapter at a time, writing down one passage from each chapter that caught my eye. I kept all these passages in a file box and, in 2019, when I started working for a small weekly newspaper, I decided to put them to use. I randomly chose twelve passages—one for each week of a season—and, using the order in which they were drawn from the file box, wrote a column called “Jessie’s Corner” for the paper.
At the time, I had three cats who would listen to my questions and, with a tilt of their heads or a smile on their faces, they would encourage me to keep talking, to find a path through the wilderness of life that led me closer to God and an acceptance of his mysterious ways. This book is named for my middle cat, Jessie, who stuck with me through many confusing twists and turns. This is why there’s a cat on the cover.
I prefer to call these pieces meditations rather than devotions because they are intended to give people something to think about. I do not have any authority to tell you what you must or must not believe. My intent is to introduce you to the God that I love. God has created so much diversity, and the tendency is for people to feel more comfortable with the familiar. Many of us, however, do not fit into the safe, comfortable traditions. There is hope for us also. God loves each of us with an unswerving intensity, and we need to be aware of that.
When I was a young woman, I was invited to attend an adult Sunday school class whose members were people of great intellect and religious background. They included doctors, a lawyer, several oil executives, farmers, and a few wives. The topic under discussion was Judgment Day, and their pronouncement was that, on that fearsome day, we would all be required to stand before God and account for our actions.
In a moment of amazing bravery, my mom spoke up and noted that God already knew the actions we had taken and why. She suggested that we become friends with God, and that way, we would know him personally and, trusting him, we wouldn’t be so afraid. There was a moment of silence in the room, and that event became etched in my mind.
Ever since then, I have invited God to join with me in everything I do. I want to know him as much as I possibly can. Friend is a word with many connotations. We have acquaintances who are called “friends” just because they aren’t exactly enemies. We have “friends” that we maintain because they can be counted on to provide something we need—social intelligence, how to get stains out of laundry, or just a sounding board.
The kind of friend that is available to us in the triune God is deeper and more profound than any friendship I have ever found. I find myself talking to him about any topic, and he has helped me find answers to crossword puzzles as well as to trickier questions involving the universe. He has become my best friend, and I would like to introduce you to him.
Acknowledgments
Thank you to:
Justin—because I said I would,
Betty, Kathie, Karen, Joanne, and Phyllis for their encouragement and support (and because they laughed in all the right places),
the congregations where I have served in the pulpit for sharing their wisdom with me, and
my best friend, without whom this would not be possible. Thank you, God!
Bible translations used:
New International Version
New King James Version
The Amplified Bible
The Message
Spring
 
While you are welcome to start these meditations at any point in the year, there is a cycle to life that can provide a comforting foundation to our lives. Spring is a time of new growth, a time of fresh starts. It is the first season that falls totally within one year.
Spring is a time of childhood when we can explore the world around us, making discoveries of great importance—the day we discover our toes, or we learn the joy of eating ice cream.
Spring is a never-ending time of play, punctuated by periods of time spent in a classroom learning how to formulate the “correct” answers to questions that have no meaning—yet.
All too soon, however, childhood moves into young adulthood, and we become more responsible for our own choices. Spring moves into