Queen Jen's Gems

 Asking questions helps us to reflect on ourselves and the world around us. Lots of questions can be found in the Bible. Today, I focus on one of the questions found in the Old Testament in the Bible. It's found in I Kings 19 😊. That chapter may sound familiar to some as that's the chapter I preached from when I did my initial sermon. Let me tell you, this chapter won't let me go and that's a good thing! In the chapter, we find God asking Elijah a question. Elijah is a man of God who is a prophet, one who is a messenger from God who shares future events. In this particular chapter, we see Elijah is in a low place because he is the only one of God's prophets left and the king's wife has threatened his life. Therefore, he is on the run for his life and is in a cave at the mountain of Horeb. It's there that God finds him (God knew he was there anyway!) and asked him the question, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" (v. 9). Elijah gives God an honest a...

 We have lots of ways to hear information about what's happening around us. There's email, text, letters, phone calls, face to face interactions, social media, word of mouth, and the Internet, just to name a few 😊. Sometimes, what we hear is true and reliable, while other times it is questionable and may not be true. We have to check the sources because some sources are more reliable than others. Information that has gone through several people may not be correct by the time it reaches you. That's why it's always important to check the source the minute someone says, "Let me tell you what I heard." I have used this phrase before, so this message is checking me too! Not only do we need to check the source, but we also need to check what we're listening to and why we're listening to it. Is what we're hearing going to help or tear down? Is what we're hearing going to add value or take from it? Is it positive or negative? Is it encouraging or disc...

 At some point in your life, you may have seen a package with these three words: handle with care. The contents inside are fragile and need to be handled gently. The items are not to be thrown around carelessly or be to run with as they could shatter if dropped. The package must be handled with care. Just like the packages we have received, our lives should be handled with care. Others' lives should be handled with care also. Our lives are valuable, precious and very important😊. We need to be careful how we treat ourselves. We should be kind to ourselves always 💖. We should also be careful how we treat others. Our actions and words can hurt, so we have to choose them wisely. We all have been the recipient or giver of words and actions that hurt at one time or another. Therefore, we have to be intentional with our words and handle them with care. We should also handle our faith with care. Our faith in God should never be taken lightly. We should ask God daily to help us in our fai...