Hi Brian!

We want to thank you and Kristine and your lovely ladies so very much for allowing us to stay in your beautiful home. It was such a fun and restful time for us and we so appreciate it! Rather than a word for this week I want to share from a devotional that Terri Lynn gave me a few years ago. It's by Oswald Chambers and it called "My Utmost For His Highest". 

Am I Convinced By Christ?

Notwithstanding in this rejoice not,… but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.  Luke 10:19-20

Jesus Christ says, in effect, Don’t rejoice in successful service, but rejoice because you are rightly related to Me. The snare in Christian work is to rejoice in successful service, to rejoice in the fact that God has used you. You never can measure what God will do through you if you are rightly related to Jesus Christ. Keep your relationship right with Him, then whatever circumstances you are in, and whoever you meet day by day, He is pouring rivers of living water through you, and it is of His mercy that He does not let you know it. When once you are rightly related to God by salvation and sanctification, remember that wherever you are, you are put there by God; and by the reaction of your life on the circumstances around you, you will fulfil God’s purpose, as long as you keep in the light as God is in the light.

The tendency to-day is to put the emphasis on service. Beware of the people who make usefulness their ground of appeal. If you make usefulness the test, then Jesus Christ was the greatest failure that ever lived. The lodestar of the saint is God Himself, not estimated usefulness. It is the work that God does through us that counts, not what we do for Him. All that Our Lord heeds in a man’s life is the relationship of worth to His Father. Jesus is bringing many sons to glory.

I LOVE this so much! It is never what we do for Jesus that is of utmost importance to Him! It is the relationship that we have with HIM that is all important. It IS the very reason that He went to the cross in the first place! To put US in the position to be ABLE to be HIS! He will work THROUGH us mightily as we submit more and more of our will to HIS, BUT, HE is more interested in who WE become when we are IN HIM! I am so awed by the TRUTH that even though I may not seem to be accomplishing much in this life, HE is more concerned with whether or not I belong TO HIM! The MOST exciting life awaits us when WE are found IN HIM! Here is Hillsong with "You Are Life":

Love and Shalom from the Swoveys!

 Hi Brian!

This week I am simply going to share some verses that encourage you to CELEBRATE with your family! 

Psalm 145:7 They shall eagerly utter the memory of Your abundant goodness And will shout joyfully of Your righteousness. AMPC

Psalm 145:7 Our hearts bubble over as we celebrate the fame  of your marvelous beauty, bringing bliss to our hearts.  We shout with ecstatic joy over your breakthrough for us. TPT

Psalm 95:2 Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. NAS

Psalm 95:2 Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to Him with songs of praise! AMPC

Psalm 126:3 The Lord has done great things for us; We are glad. NAS

Psalm 126:3  Everyone come meet his face with a thankful heart. Don’t hold back your praises;   make him great by your shouts of joy! TPT

Psalm 118:24 This is the day which the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it. NAS

Psalm 118:24 This is the day which the Lord has brought about; we will rejoice and be glad in it. AMPC

Psalm 118:24 This is the very day of the Lord that brings gladness and joy, filling our hearts with glee. TPT

Zephaniah 3:17 “The Lord your God is in your midst, A victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy. NAS

Zephaniah 3:17 The Lord your God is in the midst of you, a Mighty One, a Savior [Who saves]! He will rejoice over you with joy; AMPC

Since HE shouts over you all with JOY, have a very JOYFUL, FUN, ADVENTUROUS, HAPPY, BLESSED, LOVING and MEMORY MAKING time together! We love you all so much! Here is one of my favorite new songs by Hillsong Young and Free called "Indescribable":

Love and Shalom from the Swoveys!

 Hi Brian!

This week I'm going to share a verse that has been on my heart for you and Kristine! It is by way of encouragement that THIS is what you are doing! The verse is Proverbs 22:6. Here it is in the KJV:

6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

The promise is that if we bring our children up according to the Word of God, instructing them in the Way of the Lord and His Word, then when they are old, they will not turn away. The Message Translation says it this way:

6 Point your kids in the right direction — when they're old they won't be lost. 

All that we can do as parents is to provide them with the Truth of the Word and be examples of how to live it out. We will not do everything perfectly, but God is able to make up where we may fall short! Just point them to HIM and He will take care of what we can't do or don't know yet! Then we have The Living Bible that says it this way:

6 Teach a child to choose the right path, and when he is older, he will remain upon it. 

We show them the Way, cover them with prayer, speak the Word over them and BELIEVE that God will do the rest! My very favorite translation of this is the Amplified Bible:

6 Train up a child in the way he should go [and in keeping with his individual gift or bent], and when he is old he will not depart from it. 

Each one of your 4 lovely ladies have a different and unique calling and anointing from God to fulfill what He has called them to do, along with all of the gifts and talents necessary to carry it out! You have both done such a wonderful job of allowing their uniqueness to shine while giving them every opportunity to find what they enjoy doing, are willing to work at doing and have a gift to build on. The Dictionary definition of this use of "bent" is to have a strong inclination or interest. You are blessed with such precious daughters! They are blessed to have you both as their parents! WE are blessed to know and love you all! It is great encouragement for what we have been believing for and standing on for our own! Here is Hillsong Worship with a song that I've been thinking about called "Touch of Heaven":

Love and Shalom from the Swoveys!

Hi Brian!

The word for this week is "affection". There are a few different Greek words translated "affection" in the New Testament. We have this in Romans 1:31 and in 2 Timothy 3:1-5:

Romans 1:31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: KJV

2 Timothy 3:1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. KJV

This is the Greek word "astorgos", which is a compound of the "a" which is a negative and "storge" which means love of kindred according to Vine's Expository Dictionary. It goes on to say 'especially of parents for children and children for parents'. We have seen so many more examples of this in recent years than ever before! It is unnatural and shows a negative or ungodly influence. The next one is found in 2 Corinthians 7:16:

2 Corinthians 7:14 For if I have boasted any thing to him of you, I am not ashamed; but as we spake all things to you in truth, even so our boasting, which I made before Titus, is found a truth. 15 And his inward affection is more abundant toward you, whilst he remembereth the obedience of you all, how with fear and trembling ye received him. 16 I rejoice therefore that I have confidence in you in all things. KJV

This one is the Greek word "splagchnon", which Strong's Concordance says means: an intestine, figuratively, pity or sympathy. Thayer's Greek Lexicon adds: heart (tender mercies). Vine's Expository Dictionary adds: 'the bowels' which were regarded by the Hebrews as the seat of tender 'affections'; hence the word denotes 'tender mercies or 'inward affection'. This one has more to do with the emotions and 'feelings'. Relying on these or making decisions based on them can be tricky! The best is found in the next one in Colossians 3:2:

Colossians 3:2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. KJV

This is the Greek word "phroneo". Strong's Concordance says: to exercise the mind, entertain or have sentiment or opinon, to be mentally disposed, intensively, to interest oneself in (with concern or obedience). Thayer's Greek Lexicon says: to have understanding, be wise, to seek or strive for. Making a decision to direct our affections and choose to see things God's way sometimes takes discipline, but will ALWAYS produce good things in the end! Here is Hillsong Young and Free with "Never Have I Ever" which is all about the great LOVE that GOD has for us! 

Love and Shalom from the Swoveys!

 Hi Brian!

As I was opening my PC Study Bible to do research for another word, this devotional by Charles Spurgeon came up! The language is a little out-dated for us, but it gives a new and very interesting perspective!

"Thou crownest the year with Thy goodness." — Psalm 65:11

All the year round, every hour of every day, God is richly blessing us; both when we sleep and when we wake His mercy waits upon us. The sun may leave us a legacy of darkness, but our God never ceases to shine upon His children with beams of love. Like a river, His lovingkindness is always flowing, with a fulness inexhaustible as His own nature. Like the atmosphere which constantly surrounds the earth, and is always ready to support the life of man, the benevolence of God surrounds all His creatures; in it, as in their element, they live, and move, and have their being. Yet as the sun on summer days gladdens us with beams more warm and bright than at other times, and as rivers are at certain seasons swollen by the rain, and as the atmosphere itself is sometimes fraught with more fresh, more bracing, or more balmy influences than heretofore, so is it with the mercy of God; it hath its golden hours; its days of overflow, when the Lord magnifieth His grace before the sons of men. Amongst the blessings of the nether springs, the joyous days of harvest are a special season of excessive favour. It is the glory of autumn that the ripe gifts of providence are then abundantly bestowed; it is the mellow season of realization, whereas all before was but hope and expectation. Great is the joy of harvest. Happy are the reapers who fill their arms with the liberality of heaven. The Psalmist tells us that the harvest is the crowning of the year. Surely these crowning mercies call for crowning thanksgiving! Let us render it by the inward emotions of gratitude. Let our hearts be warmed; let our spirits remember, meditate, and think upon this goodness of the Lord. Then let us praise Him with our lips, and laud and magnify His name from whose bounty all this goodness flows. Let us glorify God by yielding our gifts to His cause. A practical proof of our gratitude is a special thank-offering to the Lord of the harvest.

Harvest time is the greatest time of the year for the farmer, gardener and crop grower.  God's promises to us of HIS desire for us to be blessed is all that we should need to overcome any fear or anxiety over the future! GOD is ALREADY there! HALLELUJAH! Here is Hillsong with "You Crown The Year":

Love and Shalom from the Swoveys!