Spiritually B A L A N C E D Part 1 of 8

I talked about having balance in our lives both spiritually and physically.   Now I am starting a series in both areas.  I pray that each one will be a blessing to you as we all grow.

Balanced!

In any of our lives, it can be difficult to have balance but it is crucial that we do what we can to create balance in our lives.  In this series on being balanced in our spiritual lives I will be covering these areas.

Be open to the Holy Spirit

Acknowledge that you’re a sinner

Lament for your sins

Allow God to work in your life

Nourish yourself with God’s Word

Commune with God

Exercise faith in God

Draw strength from God

In part one I will be focusing on Be open to the Holy Spirit.

Be open

After Jesus died for our sins and went back to heaven He sent us the great gift of the Holy Spirit.  And we cannot do anything without the Holy Spirit.  Christ works in our lives through the Holy Spirit and as Jesus said, “…Without me ye can do nothing…” John 15:5.

It is the Holy Spirit that draws our hearts and does the work within our hearts.  We wouldn’t even know anything about God and His love for us if the Spirit didn’t draw us.  He may impress others to share their testimonies, pray with us, or even share some truths from the Bible.  I call this seed planting.  But Jesus makes those seeds grow through the power for he Holy Spirit.

God never forces anyone.  He draws but it is up to us to be open to His drawing.  I believe every one of us, if we are honest with ourselves, can think of a time that we felt the drawing of the Spirit.  And there are times we listen and other times we don’t.  I can think of different times in my life that I didn’t listen to that “…still small voice” 1 Kings 19:13.  He comes to us so gently.  It starts with Him every time.

Think of someone, it may have been you, who grew up not even knowing anything about God and who He is.  God is drawing their hearts through the Holy Spirit.  They don’t know what it is but at times they listen to that still small voice.  I recall my mom telling me about getting the impression that she should or shouldn’t do a particular thing as she was growing up even though she didn’t really know anything about God.  Now that she is a Christian she can look back in her life and see when those times were and what the Lord was trying to save her from.

I have given my heart

Once we have been drawn and learned about Jesus and what He has done for us and we accept Him, He continues to speak to our heart through the Holy Spirit.  Is it an audible voice?  At times it may be but for me mostly it has not been audible.  It is really hard to explain what it is but for those that have experienced it they know what I am talking about.  You might call it an impression.

For me, I always like to invite the Holy Spirit to speak to my heart through God’s Word.  As I read His Word the Spirit impresses me with those things that need to change in my life.  He has also spoken to me through individuals around me.  Sometimes when the Lord uses people we tend to not listen.  It can be a little more difficult but we need to be open to what others share with us.  Go before the Lord in prayer and ask the Lord if He is using the person to show you something.  If we are honest in our hearts we will know if it is from God or not.

What I love

What I really love about God is how caring He is.  He cares about everything in our lives and sends the Spirit to speak to us about the every day mundane things as well.  You would think that He would only care about the big things but not God He is interested in every part of our lives.  He wants to teach us that we can trust Him.  We don’t have to worry about anything that is going on around us.  He has our back.  And everything that happens will work together for our good, even though we can’t see it at the time.

What I realize is how much I really need to write down the things the Lord speaks to me about and whether or not I listened.  It would be good to be able to look back and see those things.

I remember one time when I was grocery shopping.  We all have our particular stores we go to and what we buy at each of those stores.  Well, this particular day I had an item that I wanted to get that I always bought at a particular store because it was less expensive.  I went to two other stores before I was going to the store where I would get that item.  At each of the previous stores I walked passed the very item and a little voice said, “Buy them here”.  But I was determined to get them at the store where it was less expensive.  You have probably figured this out already.  When I got to the store where I wanted to buy it, they were out.  It definitely would have made my life easier if I just would have listened.  But what amazes me about this story the most is that God cares about it.  He wants to help us with everything.  And it starts with listening to that still small voice.

Test the spirits

We do need to realize that there is more than one kind of spirit.  We need to be sure to test the spirits, whether they are of God.  Now obviously it wouldn’t matter to God if I buy a particular item at one store or another He is just trying to make my life easier.  But there are other things that do matter.  We need t always test the spirit by the Word of God.  Because there are evil spirits as well that can speak to us and people do mistaken it of the Holy Spirit.  But if we stay in God’s Word and test everything by His Word we will be safe.

This is why it is so important to spend time each day in God’s Word and in prayer.  We need to have knowledge that will help us discern the spirits throughout the day.  If we have hidden God’s Word within our hearts we will have the discernment that we need.

Dear Father,

We want to have Your Spirit drawing us.  It can be hard at times with our selfish hearts to listen but it is our hearts desire.  You have promised that You will never leave us or forsake us.  We claim that promise and ask for Your Spirit to soften our icebound natures that want to take over.

I pray that the mighty energies of Your Holy Spirit with all quickening, recuperative, and transforming power, may fall like an electric shock on our palsy-stricken souls, causing every nerve to thrill with new life, and restoring us fully from our dead, earthly, sensual state to spiritual soundness.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Be opened to the Holy Spirit starting today!

Love you all!

Nature and Faith

Nature!

I love to spend time in nature.  It seems like there is an endless amount of lessons that can be seen through the observation of nature.  What is my favorite part of nature? It is hard for me to choose just one thing.

One thing that I have been thinking about lately is the colors in nature.  What would it have been like if God would have made the colors different than they are right now?   For example, what if the sky was red, the grass and trees were blue, and the branches and tree trunks were green.  Now, you may be thinking that’s crazy.  But the reality is that if God would have created it that way we would not have known any better.

I can’t imagine the sky red.  Just to think about it makes me feel totally on fire.  I mean red is not a relaxing color by any means and it just makes me feel anxious.  It seems that God has made the colors to reflect what He is and how He wants us to be.

Colors

Blue is a representation of the law of God.  And I love that our sky is blue because it makes me feel God’s protection.  We often think of the law as something bad.  I have to do this or that or I can’t do this or that.  But how do you want to be treated in life?  Do you want to have others steal from you or kill you?  To me, the law is a law of protection.  God loves us so much He wants to protect us from all the bad and evil.

I am grateful for God’s law of love.  He wants to have fellowship with us.  And not only does He want to have fellowship with us He also wants us to have fellowship with each other.

The law of God is all about love, love to Him, and love for those around us.  So when I look at the blue sky, it reminds me of love and God’s protective power.  And then there is the beautiful red that streaks the sky at sunset or sunrise.  It reminds me of the blood that Jesus shed, which brings me back to the love that, leads to wanting to obey His law.

Green is another lovely color that God has given us.  And as many know green is one of the most relaxing colors.  A lot of us know what it is like to go out in nature and sit amongst the green trees on the green grass.  The feeling I get when I do this is so relaxing.  The cares of the world seem to melt away.

Green

I think of green as a very significant color that God has given all around us.  He has made it one of the most prevalent colors around us, at least most of us.  I don’t think it is just because it is a relaxing color, although it plays a crucial role.  I think it is because green represents faith.  He is reminding us all around to have faith in Him.

What is the most relaxing thing that you can think of in this world today?  Well, for me, I think it is faith.  And without faith, it is impossible to please God (See Hebrews 11:6).  If we have total faith in God and His plan for our lives we can be the most relaxed people in this world, no matter what chaos is happening.  It sends chills up and down my spine when I think about it.  But I struggle to have this kind of faith.  Yet, God has given us so much to remind us what He wants for our lives, a life of rest and peace.

What is faith?

If without faith it is impossible to please God then we better know all about it right?  “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” Hebrews 11:1.  Here is how the Revised Standard Version states this verse, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

I looked up some things on faith and what it means and here is a summary of what I found.  Faith is an assurance or belief in something, and also a conviction of whatever truth we believe in.  I can have faith that when I sit down in a chair it is going to hold me up.  Most of us never even think about it or fear before we sit down, we just sit down.  Because our belief is so strong in the creator of that chair, the fact is, we don’t even think about it.  And believe it or not, we don’t even know the creator of that chair.

What makes us believe a chair is going to hold us up?  Maybe we trust the place we bought it from, the reputation a company has, other people reviews of the product, etc.  I don’t even know if I have given it much thought of why I have faith in a chair to hold me up.  And there are many more things we have faith in every day, our cars, that our house will stay standing, or the building we work at has been built to continuing standing, that most people are competent drivers so that we don’t shake in our boots every time we go out on the road, how about an airplane, etc.  I could go on and on.

So how does this play into our faith in God?  It is kind of silly when you think about it.  Why would we trust a chair, car, or airplane manufacturer that we don’t know or even investigated but we won’t trust a God who loves us?  He has given all this green around us to say, “Trust Me!  Have faith in the plan that I have for your life, even though you don’t understand or know why just trust me.”  “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding” Proverbs 3:5.

It is so…

Why is it so hard to have faith in a God who loves us with an everlasting love and yet we have faith in a chair, car, airplane, etc?  I think that this is a question that we need to chew on.  I know I do!  Believe me, as I write these things I am talking to myself.  When we go to buy a chair or even food for that matter, do we question whether it is safe?  Do we investigate the company to see if we can have faith that what I am buying is safe?  I can say for the most part I don’t.

How many of you order online?  When I order online I will often look at reviews.  But even those are not always helpful.  As a matter of fact, reviews can be downright discouraging.  And why is that?  Because you get these people that say how wonderful the product is and then there can be a small percentage that just is downright cruel about the product.  We have all see them.

The same can be true with Christians.  If we were to look at people’s reviews on Christianity we would get the same thing.  Some have had a great experience and some have not.  So how do we know?  When it comes to buying something the best way to know is to experience it yourself.  Even with reviews, you need to read between the lines.  Why don’t they like it?  Is it because it is not what they were expecting or wanted or was it because something was wrong with it?  Some would say that if the majority thinks it is good then it probably is safe to buy it.

Majority

When it comes to our choices with God should we seek the majority reviews about God?  Is there safety in the opinions of the majority?  Or is it safe to make our decisions based on what we see in other “Christian’s ” lives?  I would say not.  Just because a person claims to be Christian does not mean that they are truly like Christ.  True love gives everyone the freedom to choose whether they want God in their lives or not and whether they want to obey His laws.

Even though nature is marred by sin, it obeys God’s laws.  We are marred with sin as well but we can choose to obey God’s laws.  We can choose to have faith in His Word and the promises that He has given us.  He has given us so much evidence that He loves us.  Why is it so hard for us?  I can speak for myself, I am so much happier in my life when I have faith to lay my life in His hands. Trying to do everything on our own is such a miserable life, why do we choose it?

Look to Jesus

Why shouldn’t we look to people for our guide?  We are all sinners and make mistakes in our judgment, so there is no safety there.  The example that God gave us in Jesus Christ is the only perfect example for us to follow.  So the safest place for us to keep our eyes is on Jesus.  Read about His life, study His life, and then allow Him to emulate His life in you.

Every day as you see the green of the grass and trees bring to mind the faith that you can have in the One that is the most trustworthy.  God has put so much green around us to help us remember.  But often we pass by it all and don’t even see what He has to offer us.  God has put nature around us to remind us of Him and His power to save us to the uttermost if we come unto Him by Jesus, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for us (See Hebrews 7:25).

What is our part?  Our part is to choose Him.  When we are studying His Word and we learn His ways we choose His ways but He does the work to change our lives.  Nature obeys God but it is God’s power that makes nature grow, makes the rain to fall, or the sun to rise, etc. (See Ps. 147:8, 16-19, Matt. 5:45).  And as we choose Him and His ways God will make the seed of truth to grow in our hearts and He will make us more like Him.  He will change our hearts.

Dear Father,

Thank You for giving us the beautiful things of nature to remind us of Your power and love for us.  Help us to see that full faith in You and the plans You have for our lives is the safest and happiest place that we can be.  You are the One that can help us choose You and make us like You.  Help us in the choosing process today.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Have faith and trust in God today!  You won’t regret it!

Have you had faith in God through a tough situation and God came through for you amazingly?  I would love to hear your story.  Share below in the comments.

 

Mice, Birds, & Cats

Animals

I am sure most of us have had a cat sometime in our life, especially if you live in the country.  We want them around to get rid of those unwanted creatures called mice.  Mice are so dirty and germ-filled.  And I don’t want them around, especially in my house.

I don’t know about you but I struggle with the fact that they also want to have birds.  We have had a bird feeder over the years and I love to watch the birds eat.  It is also enjoyable to have your window open and hear their wonderful songs.  When I see the cat stalking a bird I try to get their attention on something else.

It seems they have such an attraction for birds because they are more visible and moving around more, especially this time of the year as they are building their nests.  The eye of the cat catches the movement and they are excited to have a bird.  They are going to stop that bird from having a life of abundance.  And if the bird is not diligent about watching his back he will be taken down.

Then the thought came

How can I think of this spiritually?  God can reveal to us amazing things through His nature.  I am so grateful for nature.  It is like a book and can be read.  Just like God can help us understand His Word, the Bible, He can also help us understand His Word, as spoken through nature.

I don’t know about your cats but ours seem to enjoy the birds more than the mice.  I think it is because the birds are more active and visible so it catches their eye.  As I was thinking about it I was thinking that birds could represent those that are striving to follow the Lord and the mice could represent those that do not know the Lord.  And of course, the cat would represent Satan and his evil angels.

Feeling attacked

Do you ever feel like your life is being attacked?  I mean you look around and see people that don’t seem to be following the Lord and their lives seem not so difficult.  At times this can seem frustrating.  We can even start to get discouraged and there are many that end up giving up on God because of it.

Let’s get something really clear here.  We can’t always see from the outside what is really going on in a person’s life.  They may look like they have everything and they have the world by the tail but they can be miserable.  How many times have you heard about someone who committed suicide and you were shocked because you thought they had it all together?  Looks can be so deceiving.

I believe everyone goes through struggles.  But it is true that if someone does not truly know the Lord the devil doesn’t spend as much time on him or her.  He feels he already has them in his grasp so he puts his focus on those that are striving to follow the Lord and those that are on the fence.

More visible

It seems that, just like the birds, if you know the Lord and have a connection with Him and you are more active in serving the Lord, you are more visible to the devil.  But we need to think about the fact that we are also more visible to those around us.  There should be something different about us that will attract people’s attention.  I mean how often are we attracted to the beauty of a bird versus looking at a mouse?

The beauty of a true Christ-like person attracts the attention of those around them because they feel a love that they have never experienced before.  But the devil also notices.  He doesn’t want us to attract people to the love of Christ.  So he gets in and tries to disrupt the followers of Christ in many ways.  He may get us so busy we do not have time to spend with God each morning so that we have that connection to help us through the day.  The devil sends things to try to trip us up so that we are not the witness we should be to those around us.

There is another thing that he does also, he tries to discourage us and even make us look at God as unfair and unloving.  He wants to do anything he can to get us to take our eyes off of our Lord and the love that He has for us so that he can pounce upon us and destroy us.

Others

Just like the mice are not left alone by the cats the devil doesn’t leave those who don’t know the Lord alone.  He still brings trouble into their lives to try and destroy them as well.  The devil doesn’t want them to notice that there is a better life.  Many are miserable and discouraged and don’t know where to turn.  They may even feel alone and that no one cares.

It doesn’t matter what a person’s status is in this world they can have a life that is so miserable and unhappy that they want it to end.  And without the knowledge that someone loves and cares about you, it would seem hopeless.  There are so many that are feeling this way, even more, today than normal.

Hope

There is hope for all.  There is hope for those that know God and are discouraged or angry with Him.  And there is also hope for those who do not know our loving Savior.  God is there to comfort and strengthen us.

What do we need to do?  The one thing that we have to do is trust God.  This can be difficult to do!  I still struggle with this concept at times.  This can be very difficult for someone who has never had anyone in their lives that loved them or they could trust.  How can a person understand the love of God?  It can be difficult.

I come from the perspective that the Bible is the Word of God.  I believe His Word has come from Him and that, “…Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” 2Peter 1:21.  And then they wrote it down for us to be able to read and study.

There are so many stories that show us how much God loves us.  And the most amazing of those stories is the story of Jesus.  God loved us so much “…that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved” John 3:16, 17.  What amazing love!!

The best place to start is in the gospels.  Here is where we can learn more about the love of God and His Son, Jesus.  And we can also learn what kind of life we should live.  It is a life of love.  We should be showing to others the same type of love that Christ shows to us.  But we can only do this as we allow Him to work through us.

We need to realize that no matter what the devil has to throw at us we still belong to Jesus and He will make “…All things work together for good to them that love God…” Romans 8:28.  This is a great promise to cling to when we are going through rough times, realizing that when we come out the other side we are as gold tried in the fire.  “…When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold” Job 23:10.

Dear Father,

Help me to be grateful for the trials.  I do want to thank You for the promises that you give me to cling to during the time of trial.  Thank You that You love me so much that You continue to allow things that refine my character even though I may not like it.  Help me to realize that as I become more active in Your service that the devil wants to bat me down but that You are there to defend and fight for me.

Thank You for loving everyone no matter where they are in their Christian walk or even if they don’t know you yet.  And I am also grateful that You even continue to love those that have rebelled against You and that You continue to woo their heart to You.

Thank You for all You do for me and continue to direct my path.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Cling to Jesus today no matter what the devil is doing to try and bat you out of the air.  When you know the Lord you are His and He will fight for you as you lean on Him so that you can keep flying and singing the beautiful song of salvation.

If you haven’t met Jesus feel free to reach out to me and I will help you learn about Him.

Love you all.

As a Christian, have you ever felt like the devil is trying to bat you down?  What did you do about it and what was the outcome?

Share below we would love to hear your story.

 

 

 

“I Am Glad You Have…?”

Sick!

I don’t know anyone that likes to be sick.  Now there are those that may pretend to be sick to get off work or school.  But if they are truly sick they are definitely not excited!

Recently, my daughter got sick.  And not only was it not exciting for her I was not too happy about it either.  Now is not the time to get sick with anything because of the pandemic that is taking place right now.  It causes your life to turn upside down.  Life changes and there is nothing you can do about it.

I had to call my work and let them know what was happening.   Naturally, they wanted me and my son, who also works there, to stay home.  “Until we know what she has we can’t allow you to be here and possibly put the rest of us at risk.”

And what did they do?  They scoured the place, Lysol, alcohol, sanitizing wipes, you name it they did it.  Because there is a fear of getting the deadly sickness that can change your life.  There are a lot of sicknesses that can be contagious and it can be good to take precautions so that you don’t get sick.   The biggest one is to keep your immune system strong.

Now one thing I want to be clear about here before I go on.  I am not writing this to take any side about what is true or not true about what is going on in our world today.  But what I want to do is derive a lesson that we can learn.  And in order to derive that lesson we are going to assume in this writing that what is being said is true, this sickness is deadly and you don’t want to get it.  I am not saying I necessarily believe that I am trying to show a spiritual lesson that we can derive from anything that comes into life.  And there are many!

What do I do now?

After calling my work and being band I wanted answers.  I was not going to sit around for 14 days to see what the outcome was I wanted to be proactive on getting this resolved so I could go back to work.

My next step was to call our family physician!  I told them, “My daughter has a fever and a really bad sore throat.  I need to figure out what the problem is so I can go back to work.”  I was informed that a nurse would need to call me back and ask some questions because they were not allowing anyone in the office with certain symptoms.  If she had certain symptoms I would have to take her somewhere else to be tested.

I waited for several hours for a callback but it finally came.  The questions were simple and because I could say no to all three they made an appointment for me to bring her into the doctor’s office.  We were grateful when she was diagnosed with something that you would normally not rejoice over.  But with what is happening in our world today what she was diagnosed with was better than the alternative.

It made me think

Then I got to thinking about sin in the life.  We often look at sin as if there are different categories.  We may think the sin of gossip is not as bad as murder so we are grateful that we may only have the gossip issue.  There are so many other examples that I could give but I think you get the idea.  But in God’s eyes, all sin is the same.  The sins that we think as “little” can be more dangerous to our spiritual life.  It can eat away at our spiritual life little by little without detection.

A disease of the body is like a sin to the spiritual life.  No matter what disease or sickness you have it takes you down physically.  The same is true with sin.  No matter what the sin is it has an effect on our spiritual life.  And just like some physical illnesses are contagious sin is contagious.  That is why it is so important to keep our immune systems strong and keep things out of our lives that lower our immune systems.

Now what?

What is the answer to our dilemma, whether it be physical or spiritual? The answer is really the same.  You need to build your immune system and do things that will support your immune system, whether physical or spiritual.

I am not here to talk about the physical or spiritual immune boosting ideas in-depth but I want to give a snippet to what is coming.  What about our physical and spiritual immune systems?  What can we do to help keep ourselves physically and spiritually well? I have an acronym that I have created to help us look at what things we can do to keep our immune systems strong, whether it is physically or spiritually.  We have to have a B A L A N C E D life in both of these areas.

Physical                                            Spiritual

Bed Time                                        Be open to the Holy Spirit

Aqua                                                 Acknowledge that you’re a sinner

Light                                                 Lament for your sins

Air                                                      Allow God to work in your life

Nutrition                                         Nourish yourself with God’s Word

Control                                           Commune with God

Exercise                                         Exercise faith in God

Dependence on God               Draw strength from God

God has no fear

When it comes to our physical or spiritual lives God has no fear of us coming to Him.  We don’t have to call up the Great Physician and ask if it is okay to come to Him.  He has no fear of “catching” what we have. We can come to Him at any time and He will be there for us.  There is nothing that is beyond His knowledge or control.  What a blessing!  He can take care of any disease, whether it is of a physical nature or a spiritual one.

God does not always promise to heal us physically but He does promise to heal us spiritually.  Spiritual healing is the most important.  If we die physically we have a great hope of the resurrection but if we die spiritually we have lost that hope.  I want to be healed spiritually!  How about you?

Dear Father,

Praise Your name that You are the great healer and You can heal us both physically and spiritually.  I am so grateful that I can trust You with my life.  And I am grateful that nothing comes into my life unless You allow it and it is for my good.  Thank You for Your unfailing love.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Keep your spiritual immune system in tacked by connecting with God each day.

Love you all!

What do you do to help keep your spiritual immunity up?  Share below.

 

Man’s Best Friend

Best friend!

God has been so amazing to create a dog.  He had to create them knowing that they would be the best companion for everyone.  It doesn’t matter how old or young you are a dog can cheer, guide, save you from danger, love, save your life, etc.  The stories that we hear are endless. What about the guy who was saved because his dog knew he was going to have a heart attack or the child who has been helped with anxiety from having a dog as a companion.  Or even the Seeing Eye dogs.  I could go on and on but I think you get the picture.  In this blog, I am going to share the story of me and my family’s best friend.

What happened?

I still remember the day that Rascal came into our lives.  The week before had started very sadly.  My husband and I had gotten a dog (Daphne) not long after we got married.  And several years later we inherited our neighbor’s dog (Lady) when she had to move away.  They were both great dogs but got old.  And within a few days of each other, we had to put them to sleep.  It was a hard time.

My oldest son Jeffrey was having a hard time with losing Lady because they hiked the mountains together all the time.  She had become very much a part of both Jeffrey and Aaron’s life. They often hiked every single day.

Jeffrey shared with me his desire to get another dog.  I told him that he needed to do his research on what kind of dog he would like because all puppies are cute.  So he went to work on doing his research, which did not take him long.  He came to me and said,  “I have decided on the best kind of dog for our family.  The best dog is a Golden Retriever.”  I shared with him how difficult it would be to find one we could afford because they were purebred, which made them more expensive.

So our search began.  At the time female Golden Retrievers were going for $800 and males for $500.  We started looking at all the humane societies and looking at our local adds paper.  But we were having no bites.  Then one day as we headed off to yet another shelter, we stopped and got a local adds paper.  As I began to read I ran across an ad that said, “Golden Retrievers, $200 for females and $150 for males.”  I could not believe my eyes.  How was this possible?

When I called the add it started to make sense.  They were a family that had gotten into 4-H with their daughter and were breeding Gold Retrievers without papers so that people like us could afford to buy one.  We were excited and headed right over to take a look.

The day he came

After putting down two dogs my husband was glad for the relief.  He didn’t want to have another dog around.  But….In the meantime, we were looking for a Golden Retriever, which he knew we were but I think he was hoping we wouldn’t find one.  When my dad, Jeffrey, and I went to look at the puppies, Jeffrey fell in love.  There were several different batches of puppies but Jeffrey was keen on this one particular puppy. He was different from the others and was next to the last of his litter.  There were a couple of things different about him, one was that he was the runt and the other was that he was golden instead of the typical reddish color.  He took to Jeffrey right away and we did not leave there without a puppy.

And that is what came to be one of the fondest memories in our family because Rascal became a part of our family.  I remember very well that night when my husband came home and we were all sitting around the living room with smiles on our face.  He wanted to know what was up. Then Jeffrey swung around in our swivel chair and there sitting on his lap was a bundle of golden fur.  My husband fell in love.  Our lives were going to change from that day forward but none of us knew how much.

What was life like?

Rascal was a typical puppy.  You know the type!  Chew everything in sight.  Dig holes in the yard, canyons more like it.  And talk about energy!! I have to say he became one of the greatest vole catchers.  He could hear them and it was amazing to watch him sit and turn his head listening and then he would dig like mad.  And yes, he often came up with his prize.  He never ate them but he would carry them around in his mouth then lay them down and sit and watch them.  Then when they tried to get away he would pick them up again.  Eventually, they died, probably out of fear.

Then when he was around 2 years old everything changed.  He calmed down, didn’t dig as much, but still would go after the voles.  And he became the most loving gentle dog a person could want.  He loved everyone that came.  Although, we did always wondered if he would open the door for a thief because he didn’t seem to have any enemies. He loved everyone.  But then one day someone came that he felt uncomfortable with and he sat with a low growl the whole time the person was here.  He did that just a few times in his lifetime that I can remember.  So he was a good judge of character.

He loved walks, hikes, or any place you wanted to take him.  He would hike the mountains with the boys but walk beside you if you were just out for a stroll.  You felt safe with him by your side.  There came a point where a leash was unnecessary.  But he still knew what the leash meant. So he would go and get his leash if he thought we were going on a walk and bring it to us.  He would dance with joy and cries of excitement.  He knew the signs of a walk.  You know, shoes, coats, if cold, he seemed to sense when you were doing it for a walk.

Then there was the time Aaron got a horse.  I knew right off that I did not want Rascal to go into the fenced area.  You know that tendency of a dog. They love to roll in the manure.  I was not about to let that happen.  So we got a shock collar.  We did not keep it on him all the time and it only took a couple of times to teach him.  We purposely put it on him and went out to the fence hoping he would go through and when he did we gave it to him.  He backed up, stopped, and then looked up at the horse like what did you do to me.  We only had to do that a couple of times and that was it.  He never went into the fenced area.

The horse and he would play, the horse running on the inside of the fence while Rascal ran on the outside.  They had such fun.  The funny part is that after Aaron got rid of the horse we could not get Rascal to go passed the gate.  And this went on for several years afterward.  The gate was gone and even part of the fence but he would not go passed.

Then tragedy struck

This is another day that I will never forget when Rascal was around 8 years old.  Rascal loved to be outdoors and lay in the sun.  And he often slept in the driveway.  This particular day, Jeffrey and I were headed out together to do something.  We were in separate vehicles.  I had backed up and was waiting for Jeffrey to go ahead of me because he drives on our dirt road faster than I do.  But he seemed to be taking a long time so I decided to go ahead and start.  I wasn’t gone long when I got a frantic call.  Jeffrey had back over Rascal and he was under the car.  I was told that he was bleeding from his mouth.  My heart sank.

When I arrived back at the house Jeffrey along with his grandpa, had jacked the car up off of Rascal.  I was able to see right away that he was not bleeding out of his mouth but just from his lip being ground into the ground, that was a relief.  We could not get him to crawl out from under the car.  The vet suggested treats.  You have to be kidding me right now.  I mean do you want something special to eat when your in major distress or pain?  But I did try and of course, he would not eat it.  Then the Lord impressed me to get his leash.  He loved walks as I stated earlier.  So I got his leash, put it on his collar, and he crawled out dragging his back legs.

There are weeks worth of time to this story so I won’t go into all of it.  But suffice it to say that Rascal had to end up having back surgery.  He got two rods with screws put in his back.  When the doctor said what it would take he could not guarantee that he would be able to walk afterward.  It had been so long since the original accident because the break had not shown up right away.  But praise the Lord he was able to walk.

A Year Later

I believe it was about a year later after the surgery when he was between 9 or 10,  Rascal had this spot on one of his legs.  It kept bleeding and there was a hole. We finally took him into the vet to see what the problem was.  My husband did want me to ask them if metal parts from his surgery could be coming out.  I did ask the vet and they did not think that would be possible.  But they were concerned that he had cancer. They did a couple of tests but they would need to do one that was more expensive to really know if it was cancer.  Or I could just take some ointment home and see if it would heal.  I opted for the latter.

To our amazement a couple of days later someone noticed something sticking out of the hole.  Sure enough, it was a round metal piece.  We removed it and went back to the vet with our evidence.  They called the surgeon and he said it was a piece of metal that they use for a temporary hold for the rod.  And it had worked its way out of his body.  Something like a sliver will work its way out of your finger.  Rascal was never a complainer he just went with the flow.  He still walked and hiked with no complaining.  He was an amazing dog and so many lessons can be learned from him.

Another year passed

Time goes by so fast that you can’t even remember whether it has been another year but I believe it was around 10 or 11 when we discovered more.  Rascal was full of so much beautiful golden hair that you could not tell that anything was wrong.  But one day I was petting him and reach down to rub his tummy.  What I discovered was disturbing.

Rascal’s tummy was not only huge but hard.  It made me wonder how in the world he was able to walk and hike with us carrying around whatever it was.  So again we were back at the vet.  They took an x-ray and discovered a huge mass.  Of course, they couldn’t know if it was cancer without surgery.  It appeared to be attached to his spleen so they planned to take it out with the mass.  So he was back in surgery.

When the surgery was done it was amazing to see the size of the mass.  It was the size of a volleyball.  And as it turned out it was a blood clot.  Wow! What a huge blood clot!  We concluded that it probably started from that little rod worked its way out of his body through his leg.  Even the vet agreed that was the only explanation she could think of.  Yet again he never complained.  He just wanted to be with the family and he gave so much love.  It doesn’t do any good to complain.

Still, more time passed

You might be thinking,  what more could happen to this amazing dog.  Well, I would say it was when he was around 12 years old that he started bleeding from one of his toes.  We thought he had caught his nail on something while hiking.  We took him in and this time it was cancer.  They removed his toe but it took a long time to heal.  Within the next year, we noticed a growth on the same leg they had removed the toe.  We didn’t bother to take him in because we knew it would just be another cancer spot.

He had already started to have a harder time hiking due to his back and surgery he had several years before.  His back legs had shown less and less muscle mass over time. But he would still want to go on walks.

Last winter when we were all home we went for a hike.  He had gotten to the point that he would go so far on the road but when we would head up the mountain he would head back home.  But this particular day we were all home and going for a hike as a family.

As we headed up the mountain we just expected that he would go home. There was lots of snow so we did not think that he would even consider plowing through it.  But we were mistaken.  He went around a different way where there was a road.  But the problem was that at a certain point the road had not been plowed.  When we discovered him he as laying in the snow unable to move.  He had crawled up through the snow probably mostly dragging his back legs.  We tried everything that get him to move. We waited and let him rest but no he was not going to be able to walk.

So the decision was made, he needed to be carried.  My boys took turns carrying him down the mountain.  I decided to and get a sled.  But the problem is that we had never been able to get him to go in a sled.  It was worth a try.  The boys got him down to the road as I was coming with the sled.  And to our amazement, he crawled onto the sled.  He seen we were helping him and realized that the sled would be a help to him so he got on.  Rascal was an amazing dog.

He never tried to go walking with us up the mountain again until spring when the snow was gone and even then it didn’t happen much.  But then this winter he tried it again. His favorite person above all is my son Aaron. I am not sure why he took to him so much but he did.  But since Aaron got married he is not here much.  One weekend around Christmas he and his wife came.  So they went for a hike with a couple of the other boys not thinking Rascal would follow.  At this point, he didn’t go out with us even if we walked on the road with no snow.

It is amazing what love will do.  He loved and missed Aaron so much that, without them knowing it, he tried to follow them.  When my daughter, husband, and I realized he was gone we went looking for him.  We actually never found him.  He hiked up the mountain for while but he must have realized his limitation and he circled around and came home. One thing that made it so hard to find him is that he couldn’t really hear much anymore so it was useless to call him.  We were able, because of the snow, to find and follow his tracks.

Then came the day that he was almost acting as if he had a stroke.  He had gotten into some food garbage and they can react like that when getting food poisoning.  But whatever the case was he quickly went downhill.  We did get him to throw up all the bad food but he wouldn’t eat. He kept drinking water though and I finally started giving him puppy formula, which he would eat.  By the time I thought about doing it he was too far gone.  I would check on him every couple of hours through the night and sometimes he seemed improved and other times worse.

We had been praying every day.  The night of March 3rd my daughter and I had a special prayer.  My prayer,  “Lord, please heal him but if it is better for him to just be laid to rest please don’t allow him to keep suffering.”

I got up just before midnight to check on him.  I tried to get him to drink some water and he did a little.  Then I got up around 1:30 am and he was sleeping peacefully.  His last breath was on the 4th of March.  He was so loved and gave so much love to all around him.  I can say that Rascal did not have an enemy in the world.  Rascal always saw the good in those around him.  Even the two people that he questioned in his lifetime had nothing to do with him, he was thinking about protecting the ones that he loved.

What about us

What can we learn from this amazing dog?  I think one of those things is complaining.  We, as humans, complain about everything it seems.  We don’t trust God through the hard times, we complain.  It is easy to look at the story in the Bible of the Children of Israel and wonder how they could have complained.  I mean God just parted the sea so that they could walk across on dry land surely he could provide water for them to drink.  But no, they had to start complaining rather than turning to God and requesting water and then waiting patiently, trusting Him.

The reality is that we are not any different.  Maybe you can say you are but I can’t.  I struggle with complaining.  When work is slow we start to fear that we can’t make it financially and we start to complain.  When there is more snow than we want we start to complain.  And then when it rains too much we complain.  When there is too much sun that brings fire danger we complain.  I could go on and on and on.  But suffice to say we complain.  And most of our complaining comes out of fear.

He also loved

The other thing that we can learn is to love.  Rascal loved everyone.  It didn’t matter how young, old, color of skin, etc.  He just loved you.  He had the discernment to know if someone was dangerous, which was not much through his lifetime.  But he accepted and loved with unconditional love.

We need to love others.  Our tendency is to judge the person before we show love.  And if they are not what we think they should be we move on. I am so grateful that Jesus did not do that with us.  We need to have a Christ-like love.  Love the unlovable because that is what is going to bring them to the knowledge of the One that can change them.  Who is going to love them?  Remember we may be the only Jesus they meet.  Let Jesus live in you so that all they see is Him.

Dear Father,

Thank You for giving us the best friends in our dogs.  It has been painful to lose Rascal but we thank You for giving us such an amazing dog.  A dog that has shown us what is important in life, not complaining but loving.  Help us to take this lesson and apply it to our own lives.  We live in a world of uncertainty right now.  Help us not to complain, gossip or get caught up in the gossip, and help us just to love.  We need to reach out to people now more than ever even though it may not be in person.  Help us to have Your love and compassion.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Choose not to complain and just show love and compassion.

Love you all.

A lot of us have pets.  I would love to hear some stories about what your pets have done, funny stories and serious ones.  And what lessons you have drawn.  Write it in the comments below.

 

“What Has Eclipsed Your Life?”

Eclipse!

We all remember a time in our life where there was a total solar eclipse.  It was so fascinating to watch.  Depending on what your age was when you watched it, the thoughts about what was happening were different.  A solar eclipse occurs when the moon gets between Earth and the sun, and the moon casts a shadow over the Earth.  It may not always be a total eclipse.  Also when an eclipse happens it may not be visible from where you are.

It fascinates me to think about how this occurs.  This can only occur at the phase of the new moon.  And actually, there are four types of eclipses:  total, annular, partial and hybrid.  When you think about the sun being around 864,000 miles in diameter, where our moon is only around 2,160 in diameter, it seems like an impossible event.  But the moon is closer to the earth than the sun thus this event is able to happen.  Although there are some differences between the different types of eclipses I am not going to get into that here.  The main point I want to make here is the difference in power and size between the sun and the moon.

Illustrations

There are so many spiritual illustrations a person can see through looking at an eclipse.  I have in the past talked about the moon and how it would have no light except for the reflection of the sun.  And it is the same with us as Christians.  If we don’t allow the Son of righteousness to shine on us so that we can reflect Him, we are nothing.  We are dark so no one can see Christ and we really have nothing to give to others.  But as I was reflecting on this again another thought has come to me.  There are so many illustrations that God can give us through nature.

There are different kinds of eclipses.  Some are full eclipse but others are different variations of partials.  As Christians, it can be easy to start allowing the world to creep into our lives.  It can be gradual and almost undetected at first because of how slowly it comes into our lives.  It can be something very small and we think, “Oh, this is really no big deal.  I don’t want to be different so I will just compromise a little bit.”

At that moment of compromise, the shadow of the “moon” (the devil) starts to cover the “sun” (Son of righteousness).  And we don’t really detect or notice.  I know when I have watched an eclipse it seems like it is taking “forever” but in reality, it is happening very quickly.  It seems that with each step of compromise it gets easier for the next one and then the next one until we wonder how in the world we ever got here.  And it happens more quickly than we could ever imagine.

It is that moment of realization when you feel so far away from God.  You feel as if you are in the dark.  But the fact is that the “sun” is still shining.  It is us that have changed not God.  He still loves us and wants to fully shine on us.  But because He is a true and loving God, He never forces His way into our lives.  He has given us the freedom to love and serve Him or to reject His ways.

God is still here

I am so grateful for God’s mercy and love.  And that He never leaves us or forsakes us.  He keeps “shining” even though we can’t see it.  He is waiting for us.  And He has promised, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1John 1:9).  We can confess and He will forgive. And the most wonderful thing will happen.

When we watch an eclipse it slowly covers and then slowly goes away, right?  But when we confess our sins and ask God to forgive us, the response is immediate.  The “eclipse” of the devil doesn’t slowly go away, He has to immediately leave.  And then we receive the full “Sun” (Son of Righteousness) shining upon us.  What a miracle!!  And what love God has for us.

I love these verses that show the love and power of God.  “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me when ye shall search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, saith the Lord: and I will turn away your captivity…” (Jeremiah 29:11-14).  The captivity that the devil has placed upon us by “eclipsing” us from the “Sun” will be removed as we come to God and seek after Him.

Dear Father,

Lord, You are all mighty and powerful and can accomplish all things.

You have defeated armies and healed people both physically and emotionally.  You have forgiven all who come to You with a contrite heart.

Please show us areas in our lives that we need to confess so that our lives do not become a total “eclipse”.  We praise Your name that You can forgive and cleanse us with Your shed blood.  And that You will accomplish the work that needs to be done within us.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Go to God.  He will forgive and cleanse you.

Love you all!

Do you have a story to share how God has reached out, forgiven, and saved you?  I would love to hear your story.  Comment below.

 

“It is the Month of Love”

Love?

Whether we agree with the history of how Valentine’s Day came to be we consider the month of February the love month.  We remember the importance of love.  But in our society today how can you even learn or know what love is?  Young people are growing up having no idea how to love a wife/husband, children, or even how to love their parents.  We have a broken-down society.

So what is the definition of love?  Where should we go to find out?  Well, let’s start by looking at Webster’s dictionary definition as found on Google.

“Function: noun

1: a quality or feeling of strong or constant affection for and dedication to another, like motherly love.

2 a: attraction based on sexual desire: the strong affection and tenderness felt by lovers b: a beloved person: Darling

3 a: warm attachment, enthusiasm, or devotion <love of the sea> b: the object of attachment or devotion.”

It is interesting to me that although love is considered a noun it is described here with feeling words.

Love

There are 3 types of love in Greek that we are going to look at.  There is eros, phileo, and agape love.  Let’s explore each one a little. Your eros love is that feeling love.  You remember what it was like when you first met your husband or wife.  There was that fluttery feeling, excitement, and just that desire to always be with him or her.  And there was also that physical attraction.  There was a flame kindled.  But as we know if you don’t keep putting fuel on the fire it will go out.  The same is true of our relationships if we don’t continue to nurture it the flames will go out, we will lose our affections.  And this can apply to any relationship, parent, child, friend, etc.  If we don’t nurture our relationships they falter.  Eros kind of love does not sustain a relationship over time.

So that is why we need to have phileo type of love.  This is the type of love that is devoted.  It is the kind of love that desires companionship.  It doesn’t really matter as much what you are doing you just enjoy being with the one you love.  Do you sometimes do something with your spouse, children, or friend that you don’t long to do?  But you do it because you want to be with them.  You love companionship.

But then there is a love that goes beyond eros and phileo.  It is a love that we need and that is agape love.  This love is the kind of love that gives with no attachments.  You may never get anything in return but it doesn’t matter to you.  1 Corinthians 13:4-8 sums it up well.  It is a love that is patient, kind, it doesn’t envy or boast, it is not proud or dishonors others, it is not self-seeking, is not easily provoked or think evil.  Agape love does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth.  It always protects, hopes, and perseveres.  Agape love never fails.  And the great thing is that if you have agape love it helps us with eros and phileo without having self-involved.

True Love

So is love a feeling?  Feelings usually come and go.  But what about true love, should it come and go?  I would like to look at the true definition as God meant it to be, a love that goes way beyond feelings.  If God had made His decision to send His only begotten Son to save us base on feeling, He would have never sent Him.  He could have lost His Son forever.  It had to be because of everlasting love.  “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son that, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” John 3:16.

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).  This kind of love is unselfish love.  Today our society is all about what can I get not about what can I give to the other person.  I think that it is really hard for us to even comprehend what true love is about.  Yes, we know Christ died for us because He loved us and wanted to spend eternity with us.  But those are just words.  How can you know?  We have to experience it.  The only way that we can truly experience it is to get to know Jesus.  And allow the Spirit to indwell within us.  This is not a love we can do on our own.

True love forgives that drunk that just killed my children.  Genuinely true love forgives the son or daughter that rejects all that you have taught them and continues to love them.  True love will love your husband or wife even though it seems they don’t deserve it.  The true love of God endures ridicule and persecution.  And is this not the kind of love God has.  “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you” (Matthew 5:4).

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such, there is no law” (Galatians 5:22, 23).  Do you notice love is the first fruit of the Spirit?  We cannot have the other fruits of the Spirit without love.  And we cannot have Christ-like love without Christ through the Holy Spirit living in our hearts.  Isn’t it great to know we don’t have to do this alone?  Praise the Lord!!  “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:13).

In Conclusion

When it comes right down to it, love is a choice, not a feeling.  We need to choose to love even if we don’t feel like loving.  That is why there are so many divorces today, lack of commitment and choosing to love even when times are tough.  Now I want to clarify that I am not talking here about abuse.  If you are in an abusive relationship you need to get out.

There are so many that just say, “I don’t love him or her anymore.”  The next person looks more inviting.  But the reality is that person will someday get old too and you won’t feel that zing anymore.  Love is a choice.  The bottom line is, “And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold” (Matthew 24:12).

This is not just happening in the relationships between husband and wife but also between parents, children, friends, etc.  Because of iniquity in the heart, the love of this world is waxing so cold that even the life of a child does not mean as much as it once did.  Every person is precious in the sight of God.  And as we look at them we need to see Christ hanging on the cross for them.  We need the love of Christ in our hearts and the only way we can have it is through the indwelling of His Spirit.

Dear Father,

I praise You for the power and might that You have to change hearts.  Thank You for showing us true love and what it looks like.

You have changed the hardest of hearts.  And You are faithful to work on the hearts of those that are hard and softening them so that they can see what true love is all about.

You have promised, “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and will give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them” (Ezekiel 36:26, 27).  And You have also promised to give Your Holy Spirit to them that ask.

Lord, You know that we struggle with having Your kind of love.  And we know that we cannot have this kind of love without Your Spirit dwelling within us.  I am asking that You send Your Spirit to dwell in each of us.  Lord, soften our hearts, making our hearts a heart of flesh.  Give us Your love so that we can love others as You would love them.

I praise You for hearing my prayer.  Thank You for what You will accomplish in each one of our lives.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Ask for the indwelling of God’s Spirit today and every day.  He will do a work in you that is beyond human possibilities.

Love you all.

Have you experienced a time when you knew God had given you the love for another person?  I would love to hear your story.  Share it below in the comments.

“What?!! Trust Who?”

Trust?

In the world in which we live it seems very difficult to trust.  A young person has a hard time trusting their parents for multiple reasons.  Parents struggle with trusting their children.  It can be difficult to trust a salesperson and you wonder if they are caring about your needs or just trying to make the sale.  Social Media? Some people seem to think if they see it on Facebook, Youtube, etc., it must be trustworthy.  I have news for you it is not a good source to trust.

What about the young people of today?  Why is it that they have such a hard time trusting their parents?  It seems that this is a problem within the church as well as outside the church.  And I think a lot of people are wondering why.  Our young people should feel that they can trust their parents.  There is a lot more trust in us when they are very small but things seem to change as they get older.

Parents

God was the most perfect parent and He still had children that didn’t trust Him.  But I do believe that there would be fewer young people leaving the church if they had more godly parents. You might be saying,  “Well, the Bible says, ‘Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old he will not depart from it.’  And that is exactly what I am doing.”  This sounds good but my question to parents is are you training up your children in the way they should go?  Or are we training them like we would a horse or a dog?

I don’t want you to get angry with me or think I am pointing fingers.  I am writing this just as guilty as anyone.

My parents taught me all the dos and don’ts.  I was a more compliant child so I did what they taught me.  I am sure they showed me all the reasons and they felt that the reasons were good enough.  But when I left home I was doing the right things but did not have a saving relationship with Jesus.  My parents even today would tell you how they wished they would have understood more.  But that is what growing in Christ is all about.  We don’t have it all together.  We grow!

As a parent right now you may be doing all the right things in your life.  I am not saying that you are claiming to be perfect but you have the fundamentals of right and wrong down.  But I hate to break it to you, that is not going to save us and it will not encourage or teach our children to follow Christ.  It may even turn them off.  Especially since a lot of us may be trying to get them to do the things we are doing and we are really forcing it on them.  They may be compliant but still in a lost condition.

Answers

I have to say here that I don’t have all the answers.  And I definitely don’t have it together either.  But as I study more and more I see what the answers are and want them in my life.  It may seem discouraging and I may wonder if it is too late to rectify the influence that I have been on my children.  But I know that I can trust God’s promises.

Reaching our children or anyone around us starts with us.  As parents we are missionaries and our home is our first mission field.  And what we say doesn’t mean as much as how we live and what we reflect.  Who is the one that is the accuser?  Who is it that wants to condemn?  It is not our loving Savior.  Our Savior is compassionate, forgiving, merciful, loving, shows no anger, etc.  Even when Peter denied Him He looked at him with love.  How do we look and treat our young people when they do not do what we want them to do?

If we are trying to do what is right in our strength we are going to be pointing fingers, getting angry, frustrated, and not showing love and compassion to our children or anyone that does not do what we think they should be doing.  When they see us filled with anger and frustration, or a condemning spirit it doesn’t draw them to Christ.

It starts with us

The answer starts with us.  We may be doing all the “right” things but they mean nothing if they are done in our strength.  When we do things in our strength that is when anger, frustration, no compassion, etc comes in.  We have to allow the Lord to have control of our lives and let the Holy Spirit do the work in us.  If the changes in our lives are not through the power of the Holy Spirit we are not in a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.  And we cannot reflect Him to others.  Our children will not see Jesus in us and be attracted to a better way of life.  When we are doing it in our strength they see such a struggle in us they want no part of it.

Keeping the law

You may be saying, “I keep the law of God!  I worship God and don’t take His name in vain and I keep His day holy.  And I show my parents honor.  I do not kill, steal, commit adultery, bear false witness, or covet.”  I hate to break it to you that it is much deeper than this.  We may think we are not taking the name of God in vain, using swear words but if we are not reflecting Christ and claiming to be Christians we are taking His name in vain.

And we only have to break one to be breaking them all.  “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all” James 2:10.  And Jesus said, “Whosoever, therefore, shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven” Matthew 5:19.  The teaching is done more through our actions than through words.  And if any of you are like me, we have failed bitterly.

Prayer

We need to be in much prayer.  Praying for the Holy Spirit to fill our lives and to change us.  I read once about what a young man had to say about his father and I pray we all can have this said about us by our children as well as others.  He said, “Father, I knew you then and I know you now.  I have seen such a change in your life will you mentor me?”  If we allow the Holy Spirit to take control of our lives our children will see a change in us.  As we perfectly reflect Him they will see it.

Dear Father,

You have promised Your Holy Spirit to all who ask.  I ask for Your indwelling Spirit to change my life.  I pray that everything I do will be through Your power and not my own.  And as I allow You to have full control my children will see something better and will be drawn to You.  Thank You for working in my life and the lives of my children.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Allow the Holy Spirit to do the work in your life so that your children will not see you but Jesus.

Love you all.

Have you had an experience where you know you allowed the Holy Spirit to work instead of you pulling yourself up by your bootstraps?  Can you share how the difference feels?

 

Note:  Life has been a little crazy and changing in my life thus the break from writing but I hope to be getting back on track.

May the Lord continue to bless each one of you.

“How Can You be Grateful?”

How can you…

Have you ever wonder how can you be grateful?  There are so many things that are going on in this world of ours and even within our own lives.  So how possibly can we be grateful?  Someone just lost his or her job maybe that is you.  There are some people that have had someone very dear and near to their heart pass away.  And there are some whose physical body has given up.  There are some that are living each day with someone they hold near and dear to their heart that is not well.  And they never know from one day to the next if they will be there.  There are so many sorrows in this world that I can’t even mention all of them here.  But how is it possible to be grateful through the mist of so many depressing circumstances?

God’s lesson book

God gives us so many examples in nature.  Being grateful reminds me of my daughter’s dog.  Although the dog belongs to her he loves me the most.  I go to sit down in the living room and I get 2 dogs that run and jump on my lap and start to quarrel over who gets to sit there.  Eventually, the one ends up sitting curled around my neck on the back of the couch.  And my daughter’s dog Cuddles snuggles as close as he can get next to my lap or on my lap if I don’t have something laying on it.

Cuddles shows me many things.  He isn’t perfect but I often think that the things he does do wrong are so small compared to what we may do.  You can tell when he is sad or when he is grateful.  When he is happy it is like he has a smile on his face.  His whole countenance just glows.  If you have a pet I am sure you know what I am talking about.  He doesn’t want much except to be fed and loved.  I would say that he doesn’t sit around worrying about whether or not we are going to feed him or love him.  But I can see the sadness in his eyes when I ignore him or shove him away when I am too busy.

Cuddles knows when I am sad, angry, or happy and he cares.  He tries to comfort and calm me by trying to nuzzle me.  Or when I am happy he wants to be a part of those happenings as well. He wants to go with me everywhere I go and can often be underfoot.

When I take a shower he comes into the bathroom with me.  He loves it when I lay down my housecoat for him to lie on.  But if I forget he doesn’t complain.  He just curls up on the bare floor and is content.  I can see the sadness in his eyes when I ignore him but he still tries to stay as close as possible.  He doesn’t seem to worry when I forget to feed him, he seems as happy as always to be with me.  When I realize I forgot I feel so bad but he just seems to be grateful just to have me present.

…Thinking…

When I gave it some thought it made me think of God.  I am kind of like God to Cuddles.  He has to trust me to take care of him, feed him, and love him.  Cuddles loves me no matter what I seem to do.  He must think I love him enough to not let him starve to death or leave him out in the cold.

Of course, there is a difference between God and me.  God is perfect in every way.  He as perfect love for us.  My love for Cuddles is not perfect.  God never shoves us away because He doesn’t have time for us.  He is always there.  But even though He is always there we don’t always think He is.  Sometimes we feel that he has abandoned us.  We also feel like we are being “shoved” away by Him because of the trials that He allows to come into our lives.

We need to have the love and trust that Cuddles has for me for God.  Cuddles seems to know when he has done something that upsets me.  Do we realize the pain that we bring to our Lord when we do some of the things that we do?  And do we even care?  Every time we do things in our lives we should have so much love for God that we wouldn’t want to hurt Him.

We need to put our trust in God so fully that no matter what happens we can still be grateful.  Because we know that He loves us so much we can trust Him for the outcome.  Just like Cuddles always wants to be with me and follows me where ever I go we need to do the same with God.  The great thing with God, He will never consider us in the way or underfoot. We need to “cuddle” up as close as we can get to Him and stay connected.

Grateful

It seems as Christians we have so much to be grateful for.  I think if Cuddles could talk he would talk only about the things that he loves about me and how grateful he is for my love. The love he feels out ways any bad that may come his way.

My biggest gratefulness this Thanksgiving is God’s unlimited, unending love.  It doesn’t matter what I do He still loves me.  But He loves me so much that He doesn’t want to see me stay where I am.  He wants me to grow.  And I can trust Him to take care for me.  He is never late with answering my prayers although it may feel like it to me.  I can trust Him fully.  It may not feel like it but I can claim His promises and know by faith that He will fulfill them.

I am grateful for family.  As each year passes I realize how grateful I am for parents that love God.  And I am grateful each day that I have them.  So each Thanksgiving that comes I am so grateful to still have them with me.  My father has been a spiritual guide for me.  And I am grateful for each day that the Lord continues to sustain him.  Because each day I never know if he will still be here.  I try not to think of these things but be grateful for each day God gives me with him.

I am so grateful for friends.  Friends can bring such love and comfort through hard times.  And I am grateful for the prayers that ascend to the Father on the behalf of my family and me.  Knowing that others are praying for you is such a comfort.

I think that often we don’t look at the everyday blessings and give thanks.  We just seem to expect it.  I am grateful for every breath I take, a roof over my head, food on the table, being able to walk, see, and hear etc.  There are so many things that I could write down but I think you get the idea.  We need to make an effort toward thinking about the positive things that God has blessed us with instead of always focusing on the negative things that may happen.  God is so good.

Dear Father,

Thank You for another day of life.  I am so grateful to You for all you have done in my life.  I know that all things work together for good.  You have blessed my life with great things and I pray You will help me to focus upon those things rather than the negative things.  Thank You for nature and the lessons that You teach through it.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Make sure to be grateful and not just on Thanksgiving.  Be grateful all year long.

Love you all!  And have a great Thanksgiving!

What is something that you are grateful for?  Please comment below.  Let’s see how many things we can get listed.

“How Are You?”

Questions

We get asked many questions every day and the question is how honest are we?  How many times a day do you get asked, “How are you?”  I believe we all get asked that question multiple times a day, especially if you’re working outside the home, going to church, school or shopping.  And what would your answer be?  I usually say, “I’m doing good.”  Is that always true? No!  Who wants to tell everyone how their day is really going?

Pain

There is so much pain today. It is masked by smiles, joking, laughter, etc.  Also, it may even be masked by other things like anger, unkindness, judging, gossiping, etc.  It is easy to point our fingers at others either in a way to make us feel better about our problems or to make us feel sorrier for ourselves.

The reality is that no one is exempt from a day, week, month, or even year of disaster.  It seems that things around us are getting worse and worse.  Almost every day I hear someone say at work, “Did you hear…?”  This world is falling apart as we speak.  Things are getting more and more evil.  Satan is working his hardest to destroy.  And there are many, many, many people struggling and suffering.  Some are obvious and others are hiding behind a mask.  And even with the ones that seem obvious they are behind a mask more than you may think. People are hurting.

Church

As Christians, you would think the church would be a safe zone.  A place where you would feel loved and accepted even when it may seem obvious that you’re struggling.  But, sadly, most of the time this is not true.  In a so-called Christian environment, there seems to be more judging than any other place.  This is not the way God intended for our Christian community to be.

How did Jesus say that others would know that we are His disciples?  “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also loved one another.  By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” John 13:34, 35.  And how has Jesus shown His love to us?  He laid down His life for us.  “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” John 15:13.  If nothing can separate us from the love of God as stated in Romans 8:38, 39, then there should be nothing that separates us from the love of our Christian brothers and sisters or in loving our Christian brothers and sisters.

Fear

There is a fear that comes to all of us.  We come to church trying to fit in and always look as if we have it all together.  And we smile and look cheerful while our hearts are hurting.  We are falling apart inside but fear to let anyone know.   Our thoughts are that we have to be always strong because we are Christians and we should always have things all together.  But inside we may be miserable.

There are some that are doing all the “right things” for fear that they won’t be loved or even liked unless they do.  They are concerned about what other people are going to think about every decision they make.  So they try to make all the “right” decisions at least at church.  Then they end up looking “good” but being one thing at church and another thing outside of the church.

And then there is another group, which a lot of time is where some young people fall.  A lot of times they get to the point that they don’t care anymore what people think.  The reality is they do care but they are trying to quit caring because they are tired of living a life to please others.  They quit coming to church because to be themselves they can feel the cold shoulder, they can feel the non-acceptance.

The reality is they should want to please God more than to please people.  But in their struggle, they have no one to turn to because the Christian community seems to shun and not love those that are struggling.  The love of Christ is gone and a Pharisaical attitude has taken its place.

Sinners

I can guarantee that all of those that tend to point fingers or make others feel unaccepted are not perfect.  It is easy to point the finger.  But the reality is that we are all sinners.  We all struggle each day with temptation and we fail at times.  Those that seem “rebellious” are hurting inside and God so much wants to reach their heart.  But oftentimes Christians are a stumbling block to those that are struggling.

Unfortunately, as humans we tend to look at other humans and care what they think or how they treat us.   And then we interpret what they say and do with God.  Thus we suddenly have no desire for Christianity.  And then “Christians” wonder why.

We are all sinners and we all struggle each day.  In God’s eyes sin is the same no matter how “little” we may think it is.  “If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well: But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment” James 2:8-13.

As Christians

Christ’s method alone will bring those around us to a saving relationship with Jesus.  What is His method?  Study His life.  As Christians, we should be the most loving people.  We are going to be known for our love.  Do those around us feel so safe that they can come to us if they are struggling with anger, depression, discouragement, etc.?  Or are we so “perfect” that we expect others to be the same?  I have seen what damage those who look at others and see them as not “perfect” enough to be in their group cause.  Is that really how Jesus looks at us?  Thanks be to God that it is not.  If God looked at us the way we deserve to be looked at we would be in big trouble.  But thankfully He looks at our potential rather than our failings.

Dear Father,

We need Your love not only for ourselves but we need Your love to change our hearts.  Forgive us for not allowing the love that You give us to shine through to others.  Help us as we look at those around us, to see Your Son hanging on the cross for them.  I know that I need Your forgiveness.  Cleanse us all and give us Your heart of love.  Thank You for Your love and mercy toward each of us and help us to show the same to others.

In Jesus,

Amen

I challenge you to see others through the eyes of Christ and love them as He loves them.  If you are hurting and feeling alone and unaccepted I challenge you to reach out.  There are those that do love you.

Love you all!

Do you have a story where you loving someone “unlovable” and how it changed their life? Or maybe you are someone who had someone love you unconditionally, how did it change your life?  I would love to hear your story! Please share it below.