Goin' fishing out in the deep

Do you remember a Bible story about Jesus telling Peter where to cast his nets?
Actually there are a couple of those accounts, but the one I'm thinking about occurs in the New Testament book of Luke, chapter 5.
It involves Peter, a fisherman. On this particular day, Christ is preaching by the Lake of Gennesaret when he gets into Peter’s boat and asks him to put out a little way from shore. Then Jesus sits and teaches people from the boat.
When he finishes, Christ tells Peter to go out into the deep water and let down the nets for a catch.
I can just imagine the astonished look on Peter’s face.
“Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets,” Peter says.
When Peter and those with him follow Christ’s direction, they catch so many fish their nets start to break. Fishing partners in another boat come to help and they fill both boats so full that they begin to sink.
It's a marvelous story that can teach us many lessons about trust and faith.
I've been thinking a lot about this story for the past several months and I need to tell you that Chuck and I will be going fishing this next week - not for real fish, but for people who can distribute our book to the lost and hurting.
We're going to the International Christian Retail Association trade show in St. Louis. There, we hope to meet up with retailers who might carry our book in their stores and media who might spread the word about it.
It's a costly risk, but we're willing to take it.
Many months ago, I recalled the story of Jesus and Peter and the fish and I started praying and asking God to show me where to go out into the deep and cast my nets.
Our publisher/printer JaNell Lyle suggested this show. I'd heard her talk about it before, but wondered if this was something we should check out. I prayed about it and asked others. People seemed to think it would be a good idea. God seems to have been opening doors for it.
So, here we go, out into the deep.
Please pray for us. I'm praying for a really big haul. I dream of this book going all over the world and helping millions of people. And I pray that the Lord will allow me to write more that will do the same thing!
I know that many of you have your own concerns, but I covet your prayers.
Thank you so much for reading my posts and being supportive.
May God bless and keep you and supply all your needs (and maybe some wants, too!)

Blessings,

Tammy

Meet me in St. Louis

Decades ago, actress Judy Garland was in a movie called "Meet Me in St. Louis."
I never saw the film, but I recall hearing her sing a song from it.
Well, guess what?
Chuck and I are headed to St. Louis, Mo., for the International Christian Retail Association trade show next week.
Please join us in prayer that LOTS of retailers will like our book, "Real Spiritual Spinach - Faith for the Journey," and order it for their stores!
I'm praying that this book goes all around the world and helps millions of people. I don't know if it's selfish or ungodly to pray that it sells millions of copies.
I've prayed that a little.
More than that, I pray that God will use it to reach out to lost and hurting people and to strengthen and encourage those who are already believers.
For a long time, I've imagined sad, discouraged people, sitting alone in a house or apartment and wondering why they're even on this earth or if anybody cares about them. Then I imagine them picking up this book and reading it, feeling God's love and knowing that he cares about them and has a plan for their lives.
I dream of them gaining hope and joy, wanting to dig into the scriptures for themselves, and even seeking out a church where they can go - not just out of routine, but to hear God's word and to unite with other believers who truly seek to live for their Lord and do his will.
This book is already being sold in our local hospital's gift shop. I'd like to see it in other hospital shops.
In the meantime, I trust God and wait.
Please pray that he guides our every step and directs us to the right people just at the right time.
I really believe God can use this book to help many people.
I pray that God will use me to help spread his word.
And I trust in something else for myself and other Christians:
"...that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." (Philippians 1:6.)

Blessings,

Tammy

Marvelous works

This evening, it seemed like our dog, Abby, wanted to go outside.
But when I went to let her out, she appeared to have changed her mind.
Looking out the doorway, I wondered if she heard distant thunder.
Then I paused for a moment.
Fireflies in the backyard seemed to be doing a little dance for me - appearing and disappearing.
How long has it been since I've stopped to watch fireflies?
Then lightning etched squiggly lines in the sky and lit up otherwise dark clouds. It made me think about how much I love to see a full moon surrounded by clouds or a dark sky filled with stars.
I looked in another direction and saw a bunch of smaller clouds. It looked like God had dumped a bunch of cotton balls out across the sky.
Sometimes, I think I get so busy that I forget to look at the wonders of God's creation.
David, the shepherd boy who became a king, must have spent lots of nights looking at God's handiwork.
Consider what he writes in Psalm 8:3-9: "When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?
"You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.
"You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.
O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!"
Dear Lord,
You are great and marvelous.
Thank you for the works of your hands! They are truly wonderful!
In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.

Blessings,

Tammy

Wrestling alligators

I spent a chunk of this week working on a good-sized story for the newspaper.
It was a lot more time than I'd normally spend on an article, but it's a pretty important story.
The story had multiple sources with very different opinions and I had lots of statistics tossed at me.
As I worked to put the story together, it began to feel like I was wrestling with an alligator.
The Lord - as always - was faithful and helped me finish the piece.
Something else interesting happened.
Just the other night I found myself nosing through the book of Job and I meandered over to chapter 41.
In this chapter, God asks Job if he can pull a leviathan with a fishhook or tie his tongue down with a rope. By the time we get to verse 21 we learn more about the leviathan as we read: "His breath sets coals ablaze, and flames dart from his mouth."
What's a leviathan?
In my Bible's study notes it says that scholars often identify the leviathan as a giant crocodile or a whale. The Full Life Study Bible says that by these illustrations, God is emphasizing that if Job couldn't subdue such a great creature of the world (along with another thought to be a hippopotamus) he was in no position to question and counsel God.
I guess God was trying to tell Job that he needed to trust him - no matter what.
Boy, that's a big order - especially in light of everything Job lost (all his children and livestock).
But if we read the end of the chapter, we learn that the Lord blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the first and that Job died "old and full of years."
I guess this could be considered a lesson in trust for all of us. I don't know how many of us will die old and full of years.
But the years we live can be full if we live them in Christ - our Lord and Savior and Redeemer and Friend.
And someone who's there - no matter what kind of alligator or crocodile or leviathan we're wrestling.

Blessings,

Tammy

Where's your focus?

I have a hard time taking a compliment.
That probably started when I was a kid. I'd draw a picture. Someone would say it was a good drawing and I'd deny it. I guess that seemed like the thing to do - the thing I saw modeled.
As I've grown older, I've noticed that my brain seems to go on autopilot when someone gives me a compliment and later I find myself trying to recall what that person really did say.
Oh, but a criticism?
I seem to recall those for years.
Today, someone gave me a lovely compliment about an interview for a story I recently conducted. I deflected the compliment.
Later, someone else brought up a small point about a different subject.
I went home fighting discouragement and prayed for the Lord to encourage me.
A thought hit.
Maybe I just need to change my focus. Instead of focusing on the small point - about which I can't do anything - perhaps I should focus on the compliment - or what I remember of it.
I think the Lord provides us with encouragement each day. We just need to make a point of looking for it.
Years ago, I had a friend who'd call occasionally. Whenever that person called, I was supposed to tell about 10 good things that had happened that day.
At first, it was hard. I was a single mom struggling in my job and to make ends meet.
But after about the second call, I was prepared. By the third call, I had no problems telling about good things that had occurred.
At one point, I even wrote a list of 50 blessings and posted it on my refrigerator.
I eventually met and married a wonderful man. We have two great sons and groovy daughter-in-law with a grandbaby on the way.
I have much for which to be thankful.
Even if I didn't have all of this, I'd still have the love of Christ and our Heavenly Father and the comfort and counsel of the Holy Spirit.
I still live in what I believe is the greatest country on earth. I have a loving church family.
I could go on and on.
And maybe that's what I need to do later: Count my blessings and post them on the refrigerator.
Sounds like some good spiritual nutrition to me!

"Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever." Psalm 118:1.

Blessings,

Tammy