Heart Keepers Ministries

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LOVE LETTERS

by Debbie on March 30, 2021

Here’s an interesting observation:

Letters make words! Words make letters!

Letter has two definitions:

1.
a character representing one or more of the sounds used in speech; any of the symbols of an alphabet.

2.
a written, typed, or printed communication, especially one sent in an envelope by mail or messenger.

I have been doing some organizing at my home in an upper room in my husband’s shop.

While organizing, I came across a plastic container with some letters.

These were hand written letters.

Three of the letters fell out of the container and I grabbed them up to read later.

When the day came that I read these letters, I was not prepared for how they made me feel.

They made me feel really nauseated, deep in the pit of my stomach.

These letters were love letters. One from my big brother and two from my sweet mama.

Why did they make me feel so sick? I wasn’t even sure, yet!

Here is an excerpt from the letter my big brother left for me on his kitchen counter dated 10-8-1983.

Debbie,
We rejoice with you in the success you’ve had in getting a new job. I trust you will give God credit as HE guides you to greater heights. You’ve only just begun! ...
Your uncle ( my mama’s brother) called and wants you to go to church with him sometime...
Be good; do what you do, do well; and be sweet, crisp, clean, and modest. You can do all things through Christ which strengthens you. (Phil. 4:13)...In His Steps, Don

Don was my half brother. We have the same Dad but different mothers. He was a pastor at a Baptist church in Lynn Haven, FL at the time he wrote this letter.

I was living in the small town of Graceville, FL and wanted a change, so I contacted him and asked if I could stay with him and his family until I could find a job and a place of my own.

He welcomed me to stay, with these two conditions:

I must attend church and tithe.

I moved in with him and his family and went to church and tithed, but with little passion.

The other two letters that I read were mailed to me from my mama.

One was dated 2-3-1986. Here are a couple of touching lines from it:

My Darling girl,

...So you and Jane (my roommate) take real good care of yourselves and I’ll be praying for you both...take care now. I’m so proud of your grades (I was attending college part time)...Love, Mom and Dad

The second letter mailed to me from my mama was dated 9-18-1986. Here are some touching words from it:

Darling Girl,
I hope this finds you feeling even better than yesterday, do hope things work out for the best for you. Try real hard to remember that anger doesn’t help anything, I know sometimes it’s hard but you will see it works better the kind way...Honey, just try to take things one day at a time. Just turn your problems over to the Lord, for remember, we could do nothing without him, but if we don’t ask him and trust in him he can’t help us...Much, much love Mom & Dad & All

Slowly I realized that I was grieving about times in my life when I didn’t really know the Lord or for that matter, want to know him. I was saddened by the time that I missed.

Yes, I went to church and tithed but only because it was required of me.

As soon as I found a townhouse I could afford near the beach, I left my brother’s home and his church and never returned to church again until October of 1996.

I realized I waisted over 10 yrs of my life living in the world and not in God’s Word. Yes, it greatly grieved me and I asked for his forgiveness. I realized God had given me a godly brother, a godly uncle, and a godly mother who tried so hard to direct me with words and letters to put God first in my life.

How in the world I just ignored their love and kinds words, I’ll never truly understand.

This morning I started reading in a new Bible called The Passion Translation and for some reason I started reading in Revelation.

I came across the letters Jesus lovingly wrote to the seven churches.

Christ’s letter to Laodicea seemed to help me better understand why I felt so sick about the years I waisted in the world instead of his word.

Here are a few excerpts from that letter:

Revelation 3:15-17, 19, 22

I know all that you do, and I know that you are neither frozen in apathy nor fervent with passion. How I wish you were either one or the other!

But because you are neither cold nor hot, but lukewarm, I am about to spit you from my mouth.

For you claim, “I’m rich and getting richer-I don’t need a thing.” Yet you are clueless that you’re miserable, poor, blind, barren, and naked!

...All those I dearly love I unmask and train. So repent and be eager to pursue what is right...The one whose heart is open let him listen carefully to what the Spirit is saying now...

I wish that my heart had been open to the words the Spirit was speaking to me through my brother and my uncle’s many invites to church and my mothers encouraging words, but as Jesus stated, I was clueless.

I didn’t understand the reason my life was so miserable is because Jesus was standing at the door knocking and I wasn’t interested in dining with him at all.

That is why I felt so sick. Because I know now the lukewarm state I was living in made Jesus sick too.

I am very thankful I am fervent with passion now but very sorry I waisted all those years just bring lukewarm.

I have repented and I am eager to pursue what is right and I now find myself writing letters to others in hopes they will have ears to hear what the Spirit is speaking to them, through me.

Here’s a challenge for you:

Read Christ’s letters to the seven churches and ask for an open heart and ears to hear what the Spirit is saying.

Repent if you find yourself identified in any of these letters and be eager to pursue what is right.

Think of at least one person you could write a love letter to that might need to hear godly words of encouragement. Be sure to pray for them and believe one day they will have open hearts to what the Spirit is speaking through you.

Darling Jesus,
I am thankful I can write this letter to you today. I am thankful I finally heard you knocking and listened to you and repented and began to eagerly pursue what is right.
Thank you for never giving up on me. I pray for those who may be deaf to your knocking. I know they are clueless and miserable. So I ask fervently that their ears would be open to hear your knocking at the door of their heart.
I pray they too would repent and be eager to pursue what is right. Thank you Jesus.
Much, much love Debbie.

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The Doctor Is In!

by Debbie on July 28, 2018

Recently, while talking with my son Blake, I was sharing with him that I had been feeling dizzy and lightheaded and nauseated.
I told him I had met with Dr. Google and he said I most likely was experiencing an inner ear issue, perhaps Vertigo.
I explained to my son that I had finally decided to try some Benadryl even though I was concerned that it would keep me from getting up early to go to the gym with him. I told him that the Benadryl seemed to be helping. He told me I needed to go see an ENT doctor to have it checked out. I told him that I wanted to but with my work schedule it would be a while before I could have any time off.
He understood that because he works with us in our family business and knows how hard it is to get away from the
ringing phones and many walk in customers. So we just left the conversation there, both of us settling with the fact that I needed to see a doctor but didn't have the time to go for a while.
He and I are so much alike in the area of our health and wellness. If something is not the norm in our bodies we want to find out what it is and address it. We don't like pretending it isn't there and just hoping that it will go away.
Later that day after our "I'm sick but I don't have time to go to the doctor discussion", I was sitting at my desk and my son said, " Mom, that was my ENT that just came in and bought a belt for his dryer, you should have talked to him about your situation." I said, "well, I wish you would have told me before he left." Yet, Blake and I both surmised that the doctor probably did not want to be asked about "work" stuff, when he is away from work.
So I didn't think much about it and I stood up from my desk to go up towards the front of our business and ran right into that Dr. in his scrubs, holding his old broken dryer belt and the new one he had just purchased.
Something caught his attention on his way out of our store. He saw the new Speed Queen washers and dryers that we sell.
He asked me a question about them and we ended up chatting about the appliances and his current appliances and suddenly I realized that God had sent the Dr. to me that I didn't have time to go see. I found the opportunity to tell him about my symptoms and he asked me several questions about my condition and then told me that what I was doing was best for now and that if within one month the symptoms were not completely gone that I should come see him. I felt such peace, but even more than peace, I felt like rejoicing and giving God praise to the top of my lungs. How great is our God to send a doctor to us when we can't go to the doctor.
In hindsight I now realize that I could have prayed and asked God to send the doctor to me since I couldn't go to the doctor. But what kind of faith would it take to ask for, think about, or even imagine such a thing happening. I was too busy talking about the reasons a Dr. visit couldn't happen to even think about a God who can do more than I can ask or imagine.

Ephesians 3:20
Glory belongs to God, whose power is at work in us. By this power he can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.

There is a story in the Bible about someone who needed to get well but had some excuses, but when the Dr. came to him, it changed his life forever.

John 5:1-15
After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of such people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water, then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had. Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, "Do you want to be made well?"
The sick man answered Him, "Sir, I have not a man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me."
Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your bed and walk." And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked.
And that day was the Sabbath. The Jews therefore said to him who was cured, "It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed."
He answered them, "He who made me well said to me, 'Take up your bed and walk.' "
Then they asked him, "Who is the Man who said to you. 'Take up your bed and walk'?
But the one who has healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, a multitude being in that place.
Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, "See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest
a worse thing come upon you."
The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.
*************
This man who had an infirmity thirty-eight years was now well because the doctor, Jesus, came to him. Jesus knew that the man couldn't go to him, so he came to the man.
But what did the man do when he was healed? He went to the temple! I think he was rejoicing and so excited that it got the attention of others.
Jesus found him in the temple and just reminded him not to sin and warned him that if he did, something worse could happen to him.
I don't know about you but I think God is able to do anything and he does it even when we don't think to ask him or imagine it.

I share all of this because I want God to have the glory. He did something for me that I didn't ask for, think about, or even imagine.

What a great testimony of his faithfulness.

I could tell that my son Blake was amazed as well. And as for me, well I was ready to go to church and get on my knees and thank HIM and then stand and give him praise.
He is an awesome God and can make things
happen that we just can't think or imagine.

Do you want to get well? Then stop making excuses like I did, and like the man at the pool did.
Jesus can show up in our situations in ways we can't even think or imagine.

The Dr. that came to me, I know was sent by God. And I am most grateful for such an amazing God.

The Dr. stated that he had been told about the Speed Queen appliances years back when my son went to
visit him but had forgotten about them until he saw them on display. He said, 'I am going to buy one, because I
think I deserve it.' I agreed with him wholeheartedly, because he had been an angel sent by God to me.
I certainly thought he deserved it.

I know that not one of us deserves the grace we receive from God through Jesus Christ but he still gives
us the blessings anyway.

What do you need today?

Do you want to get well?

Dear Jesus,
You are so awesome. You show up to us when we don't know what to do. When we are helpless and hopeless
and we have tried everything. Lord you are amazing.
Thank you for sending angels to help us in our time of need. Thank you for the miracles that you still perform today.
Thank you for sending the Dr. to me. I give you all the glory, and hope that others will also see your miracles in their hopeless and helpless situations. Thank you that when our faith is not wise enough or big enough to even ask, think or imagine what you can do, you can and will still do it.
You amaze me God- All glory be to you God, Amen.

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THE EMPTY WAY

May 11, 2018

Written by Debbie Norred
April 24, 2018
You know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. — 1 Peter 1:18-19
There are not [...]

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Just Passing Through

July 26, 2017

My family used to live in a very small town in Florida called Campbellton. It was one of those places that if you blinked a couple of times you would pass right through it without even knowing it.
When I was younger I hated living in that small town. There was absolutely nothing to do there [...]

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JESUS WILL PROVIDE

January 16, 2017

Mark 8:16-21
16At this they began to argue with each other because they hadn’t brought any bread. 17Jesus knew what they were saying, so he said, “Why are you arguing about having no bread? Don’t you know or understand even yet? Are your hearts too hard to take it in? 18‘You have eyes—can’t you see? You [...]

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Fed Up

August 20, 2016

I was awaken this morning by a fuzzy gray paw and a rather demanding one at that. It wasn't just the paw being used to wake me up, there was the claw as well. The paw was touching me but the claw was pressing into my skin.You can bet that [...]

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A Certain Place

June 29, 2016

Recently my husband and I got home from a stressful day at work to find that our home was a wreck because contractors had begun working on redoing our ceiling. We knew they were coming by to redo some previous work that was not quiet right.
However we did not know that this [...]

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A Shot Of Glamour

June 24, 2016

A Shot of Glamour
Vaccine shots! We all need them but most dread them. Vaccine shots help us stay healthy and avoid diseases. I can remember the days of lining up at school, waiting for the school nurse to give the dreaded shot in the arm. I was never one to be [...]

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Then they went and told Jesus!

March 31, 2016

In Matthew 14 we read about how John the Baptist had been beheaded by Herod while he was in prison and John's disciples came and took his body and buried it, then they went and told Jesus.
I wonder why they buried him first before they told Jesus. What do [...]

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No Doubt

December 8, 2015

....And no one dared ask him if he really was the Lord because they were sure of it.
John 21:12
The disciples lost something....their doubt about who Jesus was....they were sure now that he was the Lord.
What would it take Jesus doing in your life to remove all doubt and make you sure of who he is?
For [...]

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