Terrie's Tender Touch

When I think of the wilderness so many things come to my mind. I think of being alone, and nowhere...it seems sad. I think of the children of Israel and how they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years because they did not believe or trust God. Today in my Bible reading I read Luke 4:1, which says, "And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness." The first thing I thought about after reading that verse was that Jesus was led to the wilderness by the Holy Spirit. The other day my husband and I were talking about trials, and how that after having gone through various and difficult trials we have realized that God entrusted us with those trials so that we might bring Glory and Honour to Him. I say entrusted because during these "wilderness" times or trials, we have the opportunity to experience the grace of God, and grow our faith. II Peter 5:10 says, "But the God of all grace, who hath called us un...

I love my family! We are so blessed to have such a wonderful, loving, and fun family! This past Thanksgiving we all got together and enjoyed a great time together. We were able to have our pictures taken and each time I look at them (there were literally hundreds of pictures taken) I am reminded of the time we shared together. Pictures are a wonderful way to remember special times and special people. Through pictures we can see what people we have only heard about look like - like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, relatives that have passed on before we were born - people that have made a difference in our lives. As I was thinking about how pictures can mean so much, take us back to places we've been, remember joyous occasions, and allow us to see things we would never see otherwise - I thought of how we paint a picture - a portrait of sorts of Christ. We have never seen God, yet we are made in His image. We know Him through His Word, and by what we see in His awesome creat...

On March 28, 1998 my brother Rick went home to be with the Lord after battling cancer for 13 months. Yesterday marked 12 years since I have seen my brother, since I have been able to have a conversation with him, or since our family has been able to get together and have “everybody” present. This past week in my Bible reading I came upon the following statement, “ Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee…” These words were spoken to Hezekiah after he prayed and asked the Lord to extend his life. As I pondered those words, I thought of all the times I have prayed and cried to the Lord, and received a definite answer and assurance that God indeed heard my prayers, saw my tears, and met my needs…hallelujah! You might wonder how those two points in my life meet together, because surely we had prayed that God would let Rick live longer, certainly we had prayed and cried to the Lord for his health, and yet ...

In my reading this morning I saw again how important the influence of a wife can be on her husband in II Kings 8:18, “And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as did the house of Ahab: for the daughter of Ahab was his wife: and he did evil in the sight of the LORD.” This is speaking of Jehoram, and then I also thought of Solomon and how the many women he loved turned Him away from God! “For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.” I Kings 11:4 God had appeared to Solomon twice, He had given him wisdom above all men, and yet his wives were able to turn his heart away from God. The role of the wife is that of an help meet for her husband. That means that the wife should help her husband, and be meet or proper and fitting for him. In Genesis the first time we see that God says anything about His creation is not good, is when He said...

This morning I was continuing in reading from the Book of II Kings and read about the Naaman. He was a captain that God had used to bring deliverance to Syria, but he was also a leper. There was a captive of Israel, a little maid that made all the difference in the life of Naaman. In II Kings 5:2-4 it says, "And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman’s wife. And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy. And one went in, and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel." As I read those verses I thought about how that she was unnamed, a captive, described as a "little maid," and despite all those things her assurance and hope in what God could do through man of God to help Naaman led "one" to and tell the king all that she said. What ama...

This morning I was reading from the book of I Kings, beginning in chapter 10. In my reading I began to notice the same phrases repeated over and over. In fact in I and II Kings this same phrase is repeated 34 times! "Now the rest of the acts of (name of person)...are they not written, (or they are written)..." I began thinking about how that every person mentioned had their acts (or actions) recorded in writing. I began thinking about all those books and I was reminded of Revelations 20:12, "And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works." I was immediately thankful once again that my name is recorded in the Book of Life, especially after reading verse 15, "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." In my prayer and...

The other day I had the privilege of meeting a young mom named Carolyn. In the course of our conversation we realized that we were both "first generation" Christians meaning that we were both the first in our families to personally trust Christ for salvation full and free. I had been raised going to church, but I was placing my trust in my religion and my own good works to get to Heaven; I will say though that I was raised with good morals and many godly principles were instilled in me as I was growing up. Carolyn was encouraged to learn the testimony of my family after my nearly 25 years of salvation - you see she is much younger than I am (the longer I live that seems to happen to me more and more). I am sure there are many "first generation" Christians that would have the same question as Carolyn did - "what did you do?" I wish I had a simple answer, I have wondered what answer I could give - and the best I can say is what my parents have told me thr...

Yesterday after the morning service my husband and I had the privilege of visiting a church where my husband would be preaching the evening service. We got there a little early and I met a gal that I was able to sit and chat with for nearly an hour! In the course of our conversation we got on the subject of cancer, and so I began to tell her about my daughter that is a cancer survivor. As a cancer patient, my daughter had many years of doctor's appointments that lasted beyond the 18 months that she was on chemotherapy. For the first several years she had check-ups that included chest x-rays, ct scans, and blood tests. I remember one time in particular that we went in for her testing and I was especially anxious. I was weak and fearful. As we were getting ready to leave, I prayed and asked the Lord if He could please just let me know everything was ok, because I really didn't think I could take the waiting for a phone call. As we were walking out the door Kellie's surgeon ha...

Currently my husband and I are living in a home in the country. We have an orchard out our front door, and a meadow behind us...it is beautiful. On the back of the house there is an enclosed patio that was recently added on by the owner for summer dining for the many church groups that stay here for their summer retreats. It is a nice big room with many windows and sliding glass doors. There does seem to be a glitch in the tie in with the original roof that allows birds to get in the patio. Now, it may not sound like a big deal to have a bird or two get in to the patio room, except for the fact that since the room is enclosed, they can't get out! On almost a daily basis we check our "atrium" to make sure that there are no birds trapped in the room. You see, the problem is that since the room has so many windows, the birds "think" they can simply go out...and end up diving head on to the window and then crashing back on the ground! It makes quite a noise, and ...