Tag: ipad

Posted in Grace, life, prayer, priorities, Scripture, spring, Uncategorized

Good Morning!

Posted on by Dewayne Taylor

 “This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.”  Psalm 118:24 

Good morning, Sunshine! Ok…that might be an overstatement…especially as I get a little older.  But, regardless, I love mornings…especially the early mornings. All my adult life I have been an early riser—like 4:30 or 5:00 am early. With few exceptions, I don’t use an alarm clock and after a wake-up ritual, I am ready to go. 

As you probably know older people tend to lean toward two extremes. One group is sleeping in—they revert back to their teen times. The other group wakes up before the crack of dawn—they revert back to when they were babies. That is me. I normally wake up when the first number is a four or five. I say good morning to the bathroom and head to my favorite room in the house—my man-cave or home office. I usually spend an hour or so with the door closed—it is my domain. You might wonder, “what do you do in there?”

Well, here is a look into the inner sanctum. First, I turn on the lights—all of them.  I found out a long time ago the best way to jumpstart your brain is to flood the room with light.  So, I do. Then, I make a cup of coffee with my Keurig. We are very close friends.  It took me a while to become friends because he had expensive tastes.  But when Sam’s started offering cheaper coffee—we buddied up. Next, I also turn on the electric fireplace, regardless of the season, light a candle and sit back for a few minutes of news and weather.

After those preliminaries, I pull out my iPad and open YouVersion and read several devotionals.  If you are a Jesus follower or a Jesus searcher, you really need to go to your app store and download YouVersion—it for free.  Whether you are growing in Him or searching for Him…it is a go to place. After YouVersion, I read several email devotionals to get some more insight for the day. I also read some scripture—either for study purposes or just to read. Then, either at my desk or back in my chair I usually pray thanking God and asking Him to watch over the one’s I love and the upcoming day. So, there you go.  This best part of waking up is a little coffee and a little more of God.

Mornings are my most productive time. Almost all of these stories are written early in the morning. My most productive study time is early in the morning. Most of my sermons were born then. If exercise is going to happen—it has to happen in the morning. Truth be known, half of my day happens in the first three or four hours of the new day. I often find what didn’t make sense at 4:00 pm makes plenty of sense at 5:30 am. What’s seemed overwhelming at 7:00 pm is no problem at 6:00 am. 

Another of my favorite morning things, if the season is right, is to go out and sit on the patio and watch the sun rise—for the dawn to break and for the day to begin. I have never ceased to be amazed at creation—the birth of another day. As darkness gives way to dawn, as night slips away to day, it is a visual promise from my Dearest Daddy that He is not done yet.  Psalm 118:24 says, “This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.” His job is to make them, and our job is to enjoy them.  Even the more difficult days have lessons to learn…He’s not a waster…He is a provider.

Well, out on the patio I finish my last cup of coffee and sit back and take it all in.  A new day, a fresh promise, another opportunity to enjoy my Dearest Father.  So, what is your fresh start like?  It really doesn’t matter if it starts with a four or a nine.  It doesn’t matter if it is coffee or tea (but I can’t imagine that). It doesn’t matter if it is rain or sunshine…just make sure you know and remember that as you stroll with Him today…He’s got this.  Bro. Dewayne

Posted in Family, fear, Grace, gratitude, life, Scripture, sovereignty of God, thankful, Trials

Love, God

Posted on by Dewayne Taylor

Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens.” James 1:17

What were the chances? If there is one thing, I never grow old of writing about it is the favor of God. Today’s story goes like this. We had gotten back into town after our latest journey to the land of Grits. We stayed a week at a Florida State Park and then traveled a bit north, as in across the Florida line and into Georgia, to see family. Ironically, right before or after crossing the state line, Judy got a phone call letting us know that her nephew, six months younger than me, had suddenly passed away. Our visit then became a ministry opportunity as we stayed to attend the funeral. With all that said, we arrived back home on Friday afternoon. As much as we love our journeys south, it was good to be home.

Having been gone for a couple of weeks, there was plenty to do including watering plants, filling fountains, and mowing and mulching leaves.  After a bit of that, I was tired, so I sat down in a chair we have in our front foyer. The front door was open letting the morning sun and autumn beauty stream in. Judy came in and let me know she was going to Walmart so off she went. Suddenly, she appeared outside the storm door and mouthed the words letting me know she was going to take the long way to Walmart since the car after sitting for two weeks was a bit slow to crank. Good idea. So, I’m sitting in the chair just looking and soon I hear the car as it heads down our alley and to the main road. Get ready—here comes God’s favor.

As I look out the storm door, she pulls out of the alley and heads toward the Highway 13 bypass. As she left my field of view, I thought I saw something on the lid of the trunk—something flat and black—just about the size of an iPad. My first thought was surely not but I quickly changed my mind. I ran to get my phone to call her and have her check—no answer. I called again—the call goes to voice mail. On the third try, she answered the phone, and I told her my suspicions. We ended the call. She had just turned onto Highway 13 so she pulled over to the shoulder, got out, and checked.

Guess what she found? You guessed it—her iPad—just inches from falling off. She quickly sent me a picture and I called as we celebrated together. We didn’t just celebrate an almost lost iPad—we celebrated the love and favor of a Father who cared enough to cause me to look and see and who cared enough to keep that iPad right where it needed to be. How about that? Now just for the record, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that we had witnessed another love note from our Dearest Daddy. We didn’t deserve it—He just graciously delivered it. I have learned to look, to see, and to acknowledge these love notes—these grace notes from heaven.

Now here is the best part—it isn’t just Judy and me—it is every child of God and many times people who are not even His—yet. For His kids, they are love notes and for all others, it is a wooing to call them into the family. Jesus came to seek and to save and He often showed His love like His Father.  All those healings were love notes, all the miracles—more of the same. So today, right now, start looking for God’s sticky notes and when you find them—see them—be sure and give Him the glory He deserves. After all each one is a reminder that—He’s got this!  Bro. Dewayne

Posted in forgiveness, Grace, gratitude, life, prayer, priorities, Scripture, thankful

Stop the Music

Posted on by Dewayne Taylor

But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” Luke 10:40-42

I am so easily distracted.  I mean if there is more than one thing going on at a time I flounder.  One of the great miracles of modern time is that when I am on stage speaking, I walk, talk, and breathe all at the same time.  Probably more of a miracle is the fact that I have not fallen off the stage—yet. I’m sure there is a syndrome or something for people like me—I think they spell it “man” or “men,” if it is plural.

I try to have a quiet time each morning.  A quiet time is when you set apart some time to read the Bible and pray.  It is a great way to begin or end the day.  The name is very appropriate.  For me, it must be quiet.  Sometimes I like to change things up, and in the process get too many things going on—which usually means more than one.  It’s like going through a buffet line. We must be careful not to get too much on our plate.  Well, sometimes that happens to me in my quiet time. Let me explain.

First, I do my quiet time thing on my iPad.  I use the You Version app and it is just incredible.  If you own a smartphone or a tablet of some sort you can download the app from the Apple or Android store for free.  It has all kinds of devotions and reading plans as well as a zillion translations of the Bible.  Even if you speak Swahili, they can fix you up.  No kidding.  One of the totally cool features of the app is that it will read the Bible to you. Amazing.

Well, a while back, I was about to start my quiet time and decided I would try some soft music. I asked Alexa, who lives with Judy and me, to play some music. I said, “Alexa please play Christian instrumental music on Pandora.”  As always, she was so kind and said she would be glad to do that.  In a few seconds beautiful music was wafting through the air in my office.  Then I opened my You Version app and began to read.  I was able to pull that off well, but I really had to concentrate on the words on the page and not the words of the songs that were playing.  Just to be as clear as mud, the words weren’t really playing—they were just playing in my head. I told you, I get easily distracted.

Well, scripture is a part of most every devotion in You Version so after I had read the devotion, I mashed the button that started the app reading to me.  That’s when things went south.  The beautiful music is wafting through the air and now this guy was reading God’s word to me and the two collided in my brain.  I found I couldn’t focus on either one.  The same thing happens when I am watching the news and Judy comes in and starts chatting.  It is an audio disaster.  And then, as if it couldn’t, it got worse.

In my home office I have several clocks and one of them plays the beautiful Westminster chimes. Well, while my brain was struggling with the music and the guy reading to me—the clock went off. It was the top of the hour, and it began playing its melody.  And what would normally be one of my favorite sounds, suddenly pushed me over the edge.  If a quiet time is supposed to make you more spiritual…it, or rather I, failed.  As the music is wafting, the guy is reading, and the clock is dinging—I lost it.

With all that going on, I shouted, yes shouted, at my friend Alexa, “Alexa, STOP THE MUSIC!” Oh my, did I feel bad.  She did and at about the same time the clock stopped dinging and the guy stopped reading.  Suddenly…there were only the sounds of silence and the Whisperer whispering, “Dewayne, it’s ok.  Don’t let all this stuff that doesn’t matter get to you.  Just listen for Me and to Me and everything else will fall into place.”  That’s it.  That was the message for the quiet time that day.  I told my Father I was sorry for getting all frustrated and, as always, He gently whispered words of forgiveness.

In the Bible a woman named Martha got all frustrated and distracted too and Jesus told her the same thing.  He told her not what she wanted to hear but what she needed to hear. He told her that she was all worked up over nothing.  I guess it’s good to know that I’m not the only one who gets distracted and frustrated. Did I mention annoyed? Jesus invited Martha to come have a seat with Him and rest and it’s the same invitation He gives us.  I like that.  And do you know what? No matter the mess, it’s just good to know that He’s got this.  Bro. Dewayne