Buried Treasures From the Fields of Life

Buried Treasures From the Fields of Life

by

Charles & Becky McQuaig

SMASHWORDS EDITION

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PUBLISHED BY

Charles and Becky McQuaig on Smashwords

Buried Treasures From the Fields of Life

Copyright @ 2007 Peaceful Morning Publications

Charles and Becky McQuaig

Unless otherwise stated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, stored in an electronic system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the authors. Brief quotations may be used in literary reviews.

For reordering information, please send email to charlesgm@cox.net

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.

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Dedication

We dedicate this book to our Pastor, Rev. Brian Kinsey and wife Lanette, and our Pastor Emeritus, Rev. Paul H. Welch and wife Shirley.

Thank you for your excellent guidance, teaching, and firm preaching of the Word.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

We would like to extend special thanks to our dear friend, Rev. Don Bryant, for taking time from his busy schedule, and his lovely wife, Donna, to edit this book.

We appreciate your encouragement in this endeavor!

More Books

By Charles and Becky McQuaig

It happens All The Time! (ebook on Smashwords)

What Meaneth These Stones?

Coming soon: A Most Excellent Love,

a novel by Becky McQuaig

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Contents

Introduction

Prayer

My Closet Of Prayer

Thankfuls

Conditional Prayers

Any Prayer Goes Anywhere

Make the Trip

Prayer

Prayers That Make A Difference

Clear The Mechanism

Faithfulness

A Letter From The Editor

When The Fun Ends

Seasons

Choices

The Power of Influence

Dangerous Ground

They That Wait Upon The Lord

God’s Love

Wings Of Rescue

Blessings

Jesus Is Risen

Problems, Problems, Problems!

Jesus In Reeboks

Dead Lilies

Bent Nails

Spiritual Maturity

The Value of Being Broken

One Voice

A Marvelous Ride

My Index Finger

Landmarks

A Work In Progress

Chained To a Problem

Time To Get In Shape

The Journey

A Better View

Inadequacy

Resolution Or Repentance

What Is It Worth To You?

The Price Of Perfection

Let Your Faith Catch On Fire

Learn From The Past, Live In The Present, Trust God For The Future

The Importance of History

Everything Is a Test

Outreach

To My Sunday School Teacher

Desire is the Key

A Duck In Need

Lasting Influences

Ordered Steps

Too Busy

Our Heritage

Spotted Garments

Fences

Possess The Land

There Is No Rapture!

Parenting

A Jewel Of Great Price

Being a Father

Sentenced

Mothers’ Day

Christmas

More Blessed To Give

Granny’s Gift

Christmas Is Love

The Perfect Christmas Gift

Am I Real?

The Conclusion

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Introduction

CONSIDER: (Roget’s Thesaurus) To reflect, study, meditate on, deliberate, ponder, apply, review, be mindful of, observe, comprehend, examine, attend, scrutinize, inspect, dissect, take stock of, think about, to heed, become undistracted, engross in. (Webster’s Dictionary) To look at closely, to think about in order to understand, to keep in mind, to take account.

I felt I needed to get a clear definition, since I woke up with that word stuck in my thoughts. CONSIDER. What an odd thought to be awakened with. Naturally, I first inquired if God were trying to tell me something. Consider what? I prayed.

(Matthew 6:28) Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow...

(Luke 12:24) Consider the ravens...

(Ecclesiastes 7:13) Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked?

Scattered throughout the Scriptures, are instructions that we should stop and consider our surroundings.

(Proverbs 6:6) Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.

God has so designed our world that His glory and majesty are present in each petal of the flower and each movement of the wing. If we would but stop and observe, He has a plethora of wisdom and understanding to be gleaned from nature and everyday activities.

When Jesus taught the disciples, He used parables of situations with which they were familiar. He taught them spiritual connotations through ordinary circumstances. He taught them life-principles using their surroundings so that they might glean great spiritual wisdom and understanding.

(2 Timothy 2:7), Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.

(Proverbs 2:1-4, 5-6, 9-11), My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding;…Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding…Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path. When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul; Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee:

Perhaps, if we are sensitive to the Holy Spirit, we too can gain understanding and wisdom by considering what we hear, see, and are most familiar with. Actually, it isn’t really all that difficult, once we realize what we are looking for.

Spiritual parallels constantly surround us. For example, we regularly go to work, cut the lawn, pay the bills, and do the laundry.

Life has a routine. It has a rhythm. Most of us eat three times a day. None of us would expect to eat once a month or even once a week and maintain our level of strength or physical health.

How then, do we think we can sporadically feed on God’s word, or pray every now and then, and maintain a healthy relationship with Him? It would be impossible to keep up our spiritual strength.

Just as the aforementioned tasks of life must be repeated and maintained, we need to daily maintain our walk with God through prayer and the reading of His word.

Within the pages of this book are articles that encompass several years of time. The majority of them were written for The Sunday Times, a monthly Christian publication directed toward the encouragement and motivation of Sunday school teachers and Children’s Ministry workers.

Most of the stories (or articles) came to us through the observation of routine, sometimes mundane, things of life, though we didn’t realize it at the time they were written.

We weren’t consciously searching for some extraordinary revelation, but when compiling our stories to book format, we discovered an incredible pattern taking shape. God had imparted His glory and wisdom to us in some of the most unlikely places and incidents. His Holy Spirit had taught us through His grand design, yet in the most simplistic ways imaginable.

Each story revealed a thing of splendor, as if God was revealing buried treasures of spiritual nuggets found in the most unexpected places.

It is our prayer that these stories become a blessing to you as you read them, and that you will be enlightened to the beauty and the glory of God in the world around you.

Charles and Becky McQuaig

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Prayer

Articles in this Section

My Closet of Prayer

Thankfuls

Conditional Prayers

Any Prayer Goes Anywhere

Make The Trip

Prayer

Prayers That Make a Difference

Clear The Mechanism

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My Closet Of Prayer

It is my strong conviction that every child of God should have a time each day for personal prayer and devotion. Because of our schedule, my husband Charles chooses 5:00 am for his prayer time. I prefer to pray after he goes to work and my daughter goes to school, when the house is void of clamor and interruption. By this time of morning, I generally have much to pray about. Trying to get the family off peacefully for the day is great motivation to get on one’s knees.

Weekends, however, are a different story. It seems that all those tired bodies I have to drag out of bed on weekdays, have a supernatural burst of energy come Saturday morning. Everybody is up-and-at-em bright and early, usually starving, and ready to discuss all the latest topics. Unless I get up before the roosters, it is often difficult to find a quiet time.

It’s amazing, that when I am busy about my daily routine, I barely notice the everyday noises like cereal bowls and coffee cups. However, when I’m trying to ignore everything and pray, the tiniest sounds are magnified.

The cereal coming out of the box reverberates like an avalanche. Milk being poured brings visions of Niagara Falls. Even sugar being sprinkled in the other room, some thirty feet away, sounds like a winter hailstorm. With each scrape of the spoon across the bottom of the bowl, I think of fingernails on a chalkboard.

It seems so difficult to prohibit all this from my hearing and concentrate on my prayers. Often it’s impossible to focus. At times, I’ve become annoyed with myself for thinking of things when I’m praying, that I otherwise can’t remember when I need to.

Don’t forget to get furniture polish and buy weed killer for the yard. Or, there’s a sale today at the mall, (of course that could be divine intervention). If I allow it, these thoughts will invade my brain and take over my thinking.

A good friend once recommended I keep a note pad handy when I pray. She said, When something comes to mind, just jot it down. Get it out of the way and continue on. This has proven to be of tremendous benefit.

The Bible teaches that we are to enter into our closets and pray. We must somehow learn to shut out the world and bring our thoughts into captivity, in order to have an unencumbered prayer life. (2 Corinthians 10:5) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

We should, likewise, investigate other things that hinder our prayers. While it may pleasantly remove a tremendous amount of guilt to blame Satan for all hindrances, more than likely, we are at the helm of responsibility.

What breaches the flow of our prayers? (Isaiah 59:2) But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

Most of us can quote Psalms 66:18 from memory: If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. Even if we know we are not regarding INIQUITY in our heart, we still have to understand that other things can hinder our communication with God.

In Zechariah 7:13 we find STUBBORNNESS is a factor; Therefore it is come to pass, that as he cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear, saith the Lord of hosts.

Proverbs 1:28-29 refers to APATHY; Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord.

James 4:3 addresses SELF-INDULGENCE; Ye ask, and receive not, because you ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lust.

We know that the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much, (James 5:16) and we know that our prayers are heard if we are repentant, (Isaiah 58:9, 65:24). So, why does it seem many prayers are not answered swiftly? We already know what God can do. We have seen His mighty works in times past.

The Word tells us faith as small as a grain of mustard seed can move mountains (Matthew 17:20). If we believe God is able to do a work, then we have faith. Therefore, we can conclude that it may not be a lack of faith, but rather a lack of direction. Sometimes we pray not in accordance with God’s will, and our petitions are refused. (Examples: Exodus 33:18,20, Deuteronomy 3:26).

We must grow in prayer and the word of God until our thoughts align with His thoughts, and we pray what He wants us to pray. (John 15:7) If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

Thankfully, we have the Holy Spirit to help us find His will. (Romans 8:26-27) Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

It is imperative that in these last days we take praying seriously, that we focus ourselves on intercession for a lost world, and align ourselves with God’s word and will. He cannot do the work He intends to do unless He has willing, holy vessels to work through.

We live in a world full of distractions. Everywhere we go we are bombarded with brain stimuli. Every second is filled with sights and sounds that can easily rob our minds and spirits of tranquility, peace, and patience. We must close our eyes to the seductions of this present world, just as we must enter our closets of prayer and shut out external noises.

It would seem our modern conveniences serve more to unsettle our worlds than to make our lives easier. Television and the Internet, while billing themselves as ways to stay updated on the latest news and technology, have robbed us of precious, valuable family communication. Is it really so wonderful to immediately have the latest news when the news is usually bad? Do we really want our children to know how many rapes and murders occurred overnight in our city? Or do they rather need to know that: The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble: and he knoweth them that trust in him (Nahum 1:7).

Becky McQuaig

Precious Lord, help us all to look past the sights and sounds that steal our attention and rob us of our day. Help us to set our sights on You and not be distracted by this world; to lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us; to set our affections on things above and not on things below.

Help us, Lord, to seek Your face and trust You; leaning not on our own understanding. Help us, Lord, to remember that we walk by faith and not by sight. In Jesus’ name, I pray!

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Thankfuls

In our family, we have created a nightly ritual of gathering before bedtime and doing Thankfuls, our word for a time of giving thanks to God. This is when we individually state things we are thankful for that happened that day. The importance of acknowledging God’s involvement in all our daily activities is always our priority!

Many times, my mention is of divine help that took place in a work related situation or project. Often, God provided solutions to questions I know I personally did not have the answers to. And, of course, I always mention how thankful I am for the family God has given me.

My daughter’s first thankful is always for her mom and dad. Because of a little coaxing from Becky and me, over time, she has become more aware of the blessings taking place in her own life, and has thus expanded her list to include more and more things.

But it’s Becky that usually gives the best example of what being thankful really means. She goes past the obvious and mentions things that are often overlooked,