Lyli Dunbar's Blog, page 70
February 15, 2014
Deliverance
…you shall call your walls Salvation,
And your gates Praise.
Isaiah 60:18, NKJV
A little extra nugget today — A song that pairs with this verse
Photo Credit: Ludo Kwak
I am sharing “Deliverance” with like-minded sisters at
The post Deliverance appeared first on 3-D Lessons for Life.
February 12, 2014
Take Heart, Friend (Thought-Provoking Thursday)
Five years ago, I was privileged to be present on a night when a group of old friends gathered to pray for the healing of a brother in Christ. The diagnosis was sobering — stage 4 lung cancer.
I will never forget that evening. My precious friend stood in the center of the room surrounded by love as we cried out to God on his behalf. We cried out to the One who is our Hope and Healer.
As we worshipped and prayed, the men broke into song and began to sing over our friend. The song was new to me, but the words broke me.
Take heart my friend, we’ll go together
This uncertain road that lies ahead
Our faithful God has always gone before us
And He will lead the way once again
Take heart my friend, we can walk together
And if our burdens become too great
We can hold up and help one another
In God’s love, in God’s grace
Take heart my friend, the Lord is with us
As He has been all the days of our lives
Our assurance every morning
Our Defender in the night
If we should falter when trouble surrounds us
When the wind and the waves are wild and high
We will look away to Him who rules the waters
Who spoke His peace into the angry tide
He is our Comfort, our Sustainer
He is our Help in time of need
And when we wander He is our Shepherd
He who watches over us, never sleeps
Take heart my friend, the Lord is with us
As He has been all the days of our lives
Our assurance every morning
Our Defender in the night
Take heart my friend, the Lord is with us
As He has been all the days of our lives
Our assurance every morning
Our Defender in the night
In the Gospel of Matthew, friends bring a paralyzed man to Jesus, and our Healer responded by saying, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.”
What if these men had not believed that their friend could walk again?
Lord, help me to always pray and sing and believe on behalf of my friends who are in the valley.
Take heart tonight, my friends. The Lord is with you.
Something to think about…
I am joining like-minded sisters at Spiritual Sundays, Recommendation Saturday, Faith-Filled Friday, Thriving Thursday, Three-Word Wednesday, Tell His Story, A Little R and R, Soli Deo Gloria, Rich-Faith Rising, Playdates with God, and Hear it on Sunday: Use it on Monday.
Looking for more thought-provoking posts? Check out the ones written by my blogging friends in today’s link up.
Have you written something thought-provoking, challenging, encouraging, or inspiring lately? Link it up here! For best results, write the title of your post in the name box. 
As a courtesy, please link back to 3-D Lessons for Life in your post. Grab and share the Thought-Provoking Thursday button to spread the word. Use #ThoughtProvokingThursday to share your post and connect on Twitter.
Check back later to see what other GREAT posts have been linked up! Visit the post immediately before yours and leave an encouraging comment.
An InLinkz Link-up
The post Take Heart, Friend (Thought-Provoking Thursday) appeared first on 3-D Lessons for Life.
February 5, 2014
Stay Sharp
My precious friend went home to glory last Friday. Today we gathered to honor his life. He was a fire fighter, so the service was quite spectacular. For the last 5 years, he actually fought for his life and overcame the odds.
I listened as his fellas stood and shared how their brother lived and loved well. His consuming passion was to know Christ and to make Him known. His wife called him a faithful servant of God and her Superman.
On days like this, I can’t help but wonder what will people say about me when I am gone. I want to live wisely and make my Jesus proud.
Grieving, even grieving with hope, is an emotionally exhausting process. So tonight, I decided I would keep this post simple. A while back, I created an “emergency” document with some thought-provoking quotes to use “in pinch” in case I needed to put a quick post together. As I was reading through, I came across these words from Mother Teresa:
“We are all pencils in the hand of God.”
Appropriate quote in light of this day, I thought.
And then a question dropped down into my heart: How sharp are you, Lyli?
No one likes a dull pencil. Stay sharp.
Something to think about…
Friends, I hope you will understand if I am quiet this week. I love to celebrate all your stories, but for the next few days, I am going to draw back from socializing online.
Looking for more thought-provoking posts? Check out the ones written by my blogging friends in today’s link up.
Have you written something thought-provoking, challenging, encouraging, or inspiring lately? Link it up here! For best results, write the title of your post in the name box.
As a courtesy, please link back to 3-D Lessons for Life in your post. Grab and share the Thought-Provoking Thursday button to spread the word. Use #ThoughtProvokingThursday to share your post and connect on Twitter.
Check back later to see what other GREAT posts have been linked up! Visit the post immediately before yours and leave an encouraging comment.
An InLinkz Link-up
The post Stay Sharp appeared first on 3-D Lessons for Life.
January 29, 2014
Love Covers All (Thought-Provoking Thursday)
Right now, I am sitting cozy on the couch under my new blue blanket. I love a good blanket. Don’t you? My husband’s thermostat is about ten degrees hotter than the rest of the world, so I have a wicker basket in the living room with a collection of throws and quilts. When friends come over, all the women in the group end up wrapped up in something warm to prevent frost bite from setting in during our fellowship time. “Pass a blanket” is a phrase heard often at my house.
So, as I nest here all bundled up and tucked in under my protective cover, I realized I had to write this post. I turned to Bible Gateway and started reading through Proverbs in The Message — because a little wisdom is thought provoking, and Eugene Peterson’s translation is often my bloggy muse. When I arrived at chapter 10, I hit pay dirt right at verse 12:
Hatred starts fights,
but love pulls a quilt over the bickering.
Really, God? I need to take my comfy blanket and lay it over the nasty people who pick fights for no reason? I’d rather stay on the couch and hoard the goodness. You mean I have to extend cordiality to the disagreeable?
Love covers all, my daughter.
Something to think about…
I am joining like-minded sisters at Spiritual Sundays, Recommendation Saturday, Faith-Filled Friday, Thriving Thursday, Three-Word Wednesday, Tell His Story, A Little R and R, Soli Deo Gloria, Rich-Faith Rising, Playdates with God, and Hear it on Sunday: Use it on Monday.
Looking for more thought-provoking posts? Check out the ones written by my blogging friends in today’s link up.
Have you written something thought-provoking, challenging, encouraging, or inspiring lately? Link it up here! For best results, write the title of your post in the name box.
As a courtesy, please link back to 3-D Lessons for Life in your post. Grab and share the Thought-Provoking Thursday button to spread the word. Use #ThoughtProvokingThursday to share your post and connect on Twitter.
Check back later to see what other GREAT posts have been linked up! Visit the post immediately before yours and leave an encouraging comment.
An InLinkz Link-up
The post Love Covers All (Thought-Provoking Thursday) appeared first on 3-D Lessons for Life.
January 24, 2014
A Fresh Beginning
I am sharing “A Fresh Beginning” with like-minded sisters at
The post A Fresh Beginning appeared first on 3-D Lessons for Life.
January 22, 2014
Giddy Up (Thought-Provoking Thursday)
Photo Credit In September, my husband and I traveled to Alaska for two weeks. We ventured off our cruise ship quite a few times to take guided tours at ports of call. I loved learning about salmon reproduction, native history, and the habits of hump back whales. What can I say? I am a nerdy girl who likes to learn the “how and why” of things. Our best tour guide was a young guy who drove us up into the Yukon Territory and regaled us with stories about The Gold Rush.
Our Yukon bus tour took us up a steep mountain from Skagway into Canada. We learned that prospectors traveled this same route on horseback. Because the trip was so arduous and long, the miners were required to pack a year’s worth of supplies to make sure that they would not starve along the way. It is estimated that ten thousand gold-hungry men attempted to cross the rocky terrain. Three thousand horses died on the trail, and only half of the explorers reached the Yukon. Those miners who survived the trip then explored the rivers and staked their claims. Men would dig in the frozen dirt for gold dust, and then separate the treasure from the gravel.
I marveled at the hysteria that drove these men to risk it all for hidden treasure. Crazy people, I thought.
Tonight, I was reading in Proverbs 2, and God prompted me to see those greedy prospectors in a different light:
Tune your ears to the world of Wisdom;
set your heart on a life of Understanding.
That’s right—if you make Insight your priority,
and won’t take no for an answer,
Searching for it like a prospector panning for gold,
like an adventurer on a treasure hunt,
Believe me, before you know it Fear-of-God will be yours;
you’ll have come upon the Knowledge of God.
Lord, give me an adventurous, wild heart that saddles up and seeks Your treasure.
Giddy up, girl. Get greedy for Him and stake your claim.
Something to think about…
I am joining like-minded sisters at Spiritual Sundays, Recommendation Saturday, Faith-Filled Friday, Thriving Thursday, Tell His Story, A Little R and R, Soli Deo Gloria, Rich-Faith Rising, Playdates with God, and Hear it on Sunday: Use it on Monday.
Looking for more thought-provoking posts? Check out the ones written by my blogging friends in today’s link up.
Have you written something thought-provoking, challenging, encouraging, or inspiring lately? Link it up here! For best results, write the title of your post in the name box.
As a courtesy, please link back to 3-D Lessons for Life in your post. Grab and share the Thought-Provoking Thursday button to spread the word. Use #ThoughtProvokingThursday to share your post and connect on Twitter.
Check back later to see what other GREAT posts have been linked up! Visit the post immediately before yours and leave an encouraging comment
An InLinkz Link-up
The post Giddy Up (Thought-Provoking Thursday) appeared first on 3-D Lessons for Life.
January 17, 2014
Drought Proofing
“But blessed is the man who trusts Me, God,
the woman who sticks with God.
They’re like trees replanted in Eden,
putting down roots near the rivers—
Never a worry through the hottest of summers,
never dropping a leaf,
Serene and calm through droughts,
bearing fresh fruit every season.”
Jeremiah 17:7-8, MSG
I am sharing Drought Proofing with like-minded sisters at
The post Drought Proofing appeared first on 3-D Lessons for Life.
January 15, 2014
Reinforcements Incoming (Thought-Provoking Thursday)
Are you battle weary?
This week, my husband and I tried to be good foot soldiers. We marched toward the onslaught in support of our sister. She is facing a fierce struggle, and we hoped to diffuse a couple of landmines to make her way a bit less difficult.
We spent a few hours engaged in hand-to-hand combat in the field. I must admit that we felt unequal to the task. When we got home, we were exhausted and rather discouraged.
I knew the war could not be won alone. So, I immediately took desperate measures.
I contacted my Supreme Commander.
“Lord,” I humbly prayed, “please send reinforcements.”
My friends, my Commander-in-Chief wasted no time in responding. A few minutes later, a call came. A fellow infantryman had stepped onto the field. He had new energy and vision for the battle zone. My hope was renewed.
As a solider in God’s army, encouragement should be my battle cry.
What weary friend do you know who is in need of incoming reinforcement?
Something to think about…
I am sharing “Reinforcements Incoming” and joining like-minded sisters at Spiritual Sundays, Recommendation Saturday, Faith-Filled Friday, Legacy Leaver Thursday, Tell His Story, A Little R and R, Soli Deo Gloria, Rich-Faith Rising, Playdates with God, and Hear it on Sunday: Use it on Monday.
Looking for more thought-provoking posts? Check out the ones written by my blogging friends in today’s link up.
Have you written something thought-provoking, challenging, encouraging, or inspiring lately? Link it up here! For best results, write the title of your post in the name box.
As a courtesy, please link back to 3-D Lessons for Life in your post. Grab and share the Thought-Provoking Thursday button to spread the word. Use #ThoughtProvokingThursday to share your post and connect on Twitter.
Check back later to see what other GREAT posts have been linked up! Visit the post immediately before yours and leave an encouraging comment.
An InLinkz Link-up
The post Reinforcements Incoming (Thought-Provoking Thursday) appeared first on 3-D Lessons for Life.
January 10, 2014
My Wildest Dreams
God can do anything, you know—
far more than you could ever imagine
or guess or request in your wildest dreams!
He does it not by pushing us around
but by working within us,
His Spirit deeply and gently within us.
Ephesians 3:20
I am sharing my 2014 my wildest dreams with like-minded sisters at
The post My Wildest Dreams appeared first on 3-D Lessons for Life.
January 8, 2014
Be a Garden Girl
I spent the greater part of last year contemplating how to be “fruitlicious.” But then the wintery season of my soul arrived, and I stopped writing about watering and pruning and fertilizing.
Winter is hard.
The new year arrived despite my protests that I was not quite ready. The frost was starting to settle in. But, I wanted to hold on to Harvest time.
I must confess that I started to get lost in the pages of time as the calendar days kept mercilessly flipping by. Thanksgiving raced to December, and December blinked into New Year’s.
My heart was on pause, but the days marched on unaware.
Slow down. I needed to slow down.
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This morning, I read Genesis 3 with the ladies who read Truth, and a verse rose up off the page and captured my attention in the midst of the noise.
And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
How sad, I thought. Jehovah Himself sought them out, and they hid. They missed out on a sweet garden get together with God.
That’s when He spoke to me.
You do the same, Lyli.
He reminded me that even if its wintery outside, there is a solarium for two right inside my heart if I will but sit down for a spell with Him.
He waits for me. I want to be a garden girl.
Something to think about…
I am joining like-minded sisters at Spiritual Sundays, Recommendation Saturday, Faith-Filled Friday, Legacy Leaver Thursday, Thriving Thursdays, Tell His Story, Wednesdays in the Word, A Little R and R, Soli Deo Gloria, Rich-Faith Rising, Playdates with God, and Hear it on Sunday: Use it on Monday.
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Looking for more thought-provoking posts? Check out the ones written by my blogging friends in today’s link up.
Have you written something thought-provoking, challenging, encouraging, or inspiring lately? Link it up here! For best results, write the title of your post in the name box.
As a courtesy, please link back to 3-D Lessons for Life in your post. Grab and share the Thought-Provoking Thursday button to spread the word. Use #ThoughtProvokingThursday to share your post and connect on Twitter.
Check back later to see what other GREAT posts have been linked up! Visit the post immediately before yours and leave an encouraging comment.
An InLinkz Link-up
The post Be a Garden Girl appeared first on 3-D Lessons for Life.
