Category: Thankfulness

“__________” Lives Matter

“For, “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall but the word of the Lord endures forever.” And this is the word that was preached to you.” – 1 Peter 1:24 NIV (Isaiah 40:6-8)

Remember singing this as a child?

“Red and yellow, black and white, we are precious in His sight, Jesus Loves the little children of the world!”

We should be singing this every day, but substituting the words “all tbe people” for “little children”. He loves us, ALL the children …. He LOVES us!! He doesn’t care what color I am on the outside, because we are all the same without our skin. I find myself discriminating against people more for their appearance than their color, and that is just as bad as discrimination for color. We are called to love EVERYONE, regardless of color, or appearance, or political beliefs; EVERYONE, regardless of actions. I know firsthand how difficult is when a person has hurt you. Proverbs 10:12 says: “Hatred stirs up conflict, but love covers over all wrongs.” The LOVE of JESUS covers over ALL wrongs…..” This is so true. When I stay angry, or tense, or full of hatred, it REALLY affects me. Mentally, it gives me worry and stress headaches, and physically, it gives me stomach cramps that lead to ulcers. Does it hurt the person who harmed me? No, not all. They go on with their lives while I pay the price in my body with the hatred I carry. Just say “A pox on them!” and let it go. Remember this:

“For GOD Loved the world so much that He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish….” – John 3:16 NLT

Do I believe that this gives people who intentionally hurt others a pass? Absolutely not; I know that anyone can accept Jesus and experience His salvation (Hallelujah!), but we still have consequences for our actions. I can’t imagine how that will work when we stand before the Great White Throne for judgement by the Supreme and Almighty LORD of the Universe. All I can say for sure about that time, is that I know my Advocate is Jesus, and that I get to spend eternity with Amen.

ALL lives matter to Jesus. Red, yellow, black, white, blue. All the people of the world.

Revelation!

“Then the LORD replied: “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.” – Hab. 2:2‭-‬3 NIV

Heaven and hell; Real, or imagined?

What do you say? I pray, for your sake, you have accepted Jesus as your personal Savior, that you pray and study the Bible, GOD’S Word, and that you believe that is true. I pray that you have said “Yes, I believe there is a heaven and a hell.” I have nothing to gain by asking that question, but you have EVERYTHING to gain by believing and knowing the Truth. Jesus said:

“I AM the Way and the Truth and the Life. NO ONE comes to the FATHER except through Me. If you really know Me, you will know My FATHER as well. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him.” – John 14:6‭-‬7 NIV

How cool that must have been for the disciples, when they begin to understand that they were actually in the presence of GOD! I will eventually get to see JESUS face to Face, by imagine! The crowds of people and the disciples…. they walked with Jesus and they talked with JESUS, in the flesh, where they could look Him in the eyes and receive His Blessings in person. How AWESOME is that! It won’t be long for the rest of us, and we will get to see Him, too. Before that happens, we have to deal with our world as it is: messed up, polluted, filled with corruption and evil. The Ren Collective sings a song that says “I need a miracle.” So do I!

We have something as Christians that is uniquely ours, and that is our salvation. We know where we are going, and we know, or should know, that we can run to JESUS when the world tries to overwhelm us. Is that where you run? Do you ask Him for clarity of thought and protection? If not, …… WHY?

“Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near……. “Look, He is coming with the clouds,” and “every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him”; and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of Him.” So shall it be! Amen. “I AM the Alpha and the Omega,” says the LORD GOD, “Who is, and Who was, and Who is to come, the Almighty.” ” – Revelation 1:3,7‭-‬8 NIV

AMEN.

Eyes On Jesus

It’s so easy to get distracted by the world, and take our eyes off of Jesus. Discouragement and sin creep in, especially when we think we have it all together and don’t see the need for fellowship with other Christians. Been there? I can relate! We fall back into relying on ourselves and forget how quickly we fall. Keep the words of Paul in mind:

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race GOD has set before us.

We do this by keeping our eyes on JESUS, the Champion Who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting Him, He endured the cross, disregarding its shame. NowHhe is seated in the place of honor beside GOD’S throne.

Think of all the hostility He endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up. After all, you have not yet given your lives in your struggle against sin. And have you forgotten the encouraging words GOD spoke to you as His children?

He said, “My child, don’t make light of the LORD’S discipline, and don’t give up when He corrects you. For the LORD disciplines those He loves, and He punishes each one He accepts as His child.” (Hebrews 12:1‭-‬6 NLT)

As long as we keep our eyes on Jesus…..

Grace and Peace

Are you searching for a way out of the chaos and messiness and the ugly of your life? I relate to that, because I was stuck in all that for many years. Chaos isn’t easy to walk away from. An acquaintance made a comment once, regarding a woman who was in an abusive situation. Her comment was that the woman was just stupid and weak for not leaving her abuser. It isn’t easy to leave. You may not be physically or verbally abused by a partner, but there are many things that create chaos and ugliness besides that abuse. Your physical state, or a mental disease or syndrome like autism or PTSD, can create plenty of messiness and chaos. We can’t just walk away from those, either. Maybe it’s an extreme example like Stockholm syndrome, or muscular dystrophy. It could be hidden, like a mild form of autism, or fibromyalgia, ….. or the threats you have received that if you should even attempt to leave a situation, you, your children, you family/friends will be hurt or even killed. Extreme? Yes, and no. There are counselors and psycologists, psychiatrists and physicians and other health care practitioners to assist us, but first we have to acknowledge and admit the issue. That can be excruciatingly difficult, especially when we think It’s our fault – for whatever reason. There is also the stigma that is attached to many of our situations. Many times in my life, I’ve wanted to run screaming to get away from something or someone, but i didn’t have the mental or physical strength to do it.

The first step is to admit we cannot ‘fix’ it ourselves. We have to admit we are broken. True healing, after we acknowledge our brokenness, comes only from GOD through His Son Jesus.

“May GOD THE FATHER and our LORD JESUS CHRIST give you Grace and Peace. Jesus gave His Life for our sins, just as GOD our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live. ALL GLORY TO GOD FOREVER AND EVER! AMEN.” (Galatians 1:3‭-‬5 NLT)

It is never easy to admit there is something we cannot fix ourselves. We should be SELF sufficient, and not rely on anything or anyone to help us …. Right? No. Wrong. Humans were created to desire fellowship with one another, and especially with our LORD. Without Him, our lives will always have the hole that we try so hard to fill up with relationships or booze or drugs or food, shopping or sports or material things. ONE answer, and ONLY one, will satisfy our souls and give us the Grace and Peace we so desperately are looking for. The Name of JESUS. Can I get an Amen??

I AM

“God replied to Moses, “ I AM Who I AM . Say this to the people of Israel: I AM has sent me to you.” (Exodus 3:14 NLT)

and again:

“This is what the Lord says— your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is good for you and leads you along the paths you should follow.” (Isaiah 48:17 NLT)

No equivocation, no hestitation.

“Then Nathanael exclaimed, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God—the King of Israel!” …. Then He {Jesus} said, “I tell you the truth, you will all see heaven open and the angels of GOD going up and down on the Son of Man, the One Who is the stairway between heaven and earth. ” ” (John 1:49‭, ‬51 NLT)

“Then the disciples worshiped him. “You really are the Son of God!” they exclaimed.” (Matthew 14:33 NLT)

Why, why, why do we doubt God’s Sovereignty? How can we not see Him in every bit of creation, from the absolute tiniest organism or cell struction, to the immensity of the higest mountains and the deepest canyons in the seas? Researchers are finding more evidence every day that supports the Bible accounts, and yet we still have skeptics and denial from every quarter. Yes, it takes faith to believe in the unseen. Do you believe in the air we breathe? It is unseen…. Do you believe in sound waves, and wireless signals; in electricity and radio and television signals? We can’t see them, either. “But wait,” you say. “We can see the pictures on the television. We can talk on our phones. We hear the radio, so it doesn’t require faith to believe in them. There is evidence to support their existance.”

Then i can only say this: look around yourself, at the grass and dirt and flowers and trees; look at the animals – dogs, cats, birds, horses…. they just evolved from slime?? Picture this: a scientist is arguing with God, trying to prove the theory of evolution. God says, “Okay, let’s each create a living being.” The scientist grabs a handful of dirt to get started, and God says, “Put that down! Create your own dirt!” Simple choice: believe in a THEORY of evolution, or believe in I AM, Creator God….

I have a Friend in Jesus; He is my Hope, my Cleansing, my Protector, and my Salvation. There is no one like Him. He makes me WHOLE. Amen!

It’s A HEART Problem…

“Fight the good fight for the true faith. Hold tightly to the eternal life to which God has called you, which you have declared so well before many witnesses.” – 1 Timothy 6:12 NLT

Cain killed Abel with a rock. It’s a heart problem, not a rock problem. OJ, a black man, killed his wife Nicole, a white woman, with a knife. It’s a heart problem, not a skin color or a knife problem. One person gets angry and shoots another person. It’s a heart problem, not a gun problem.

“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” – Jeremiah 17:9 NLT

Who can know another’s heart? Certainly not me; my “picker” has chosen badly too many times! I see what I want to see, and for years I was in ‘rescue’ mode, trying to save the next lost puppy (that’s a euphemism for a man, rather, a little lost boy in a man’s body). In the process, I lost money from buying things for them (computers, vehicles, tools, etc.); I lost emotionally through lies and cheating and affairs. My strays were not all men; there was a woman I befriended who thought nothing of using her friends to clean up her messes with their time and money and emotions. Through all of this, I forgot the faith I had grown up with, and wandered through it on my terms, without my Lord. Oh, I knew Him, and I prayed and called on Him for help, and He delivered me time after time, but I didn’t fully rely on Him.

Jeremiah had it right about the human heart. From the very beginning of humanity our hearts have gotten us into trouble. Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3). Their firstborn, Cain, murdered his brother, Abel. The Old Testament is full of man’s deceitfulness, and even within the twelve men privileged to be with Jesus on earth there was the deceiver, Judas. Every man’s heart, every woman’s heart, is full of deceitfulness and wickedness. If you don’t believe me, just look at the around you. Everyone lies, everyone cheats, everyone deceives. It’s in our DNA, from the beginning. The GOOD NEWS is that we don’t have to sit back and take it! We have the Power of Jesus, the Power that calmed the raging sea, the Power of the burning bush, the Power that rolled away the stone that was holding His body in the grave…. we have access to the good faith, the true Faith, that comes though Jesus Christ. It is up to us, to those who have that Faith, to share it with the world. Fight the good fight. Hold tight to the LORD. Declare His Love and His Faithfulness to your world, without being self-righteous or condescending. Remember that there, except for the Grace of God, goes me, or you.

Don’t let your HEART problem keep you from the Great Physician, Jesus Christ.

Yes.

“I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life.” – John 5:24 NLT

The following is from Right From The Heart 1-Minute Devotions. It’s right on target for people who call themselves followers of Jesus Christ.

“I had an interesting conversation with a friend who is an atheist. He had visited our church and heard statistics on the high number of families who give nothing to the Lord’s work each year. The basic minimum in faithful giving, according to the Bible, is ten percent, or a tithe. My friend said to me, ‘I was shocked. I thought if you people really believe this stuff about God, heaven, and hell, and the importance of spreading the message, you’d want to give more than ten percent. ‘Cause what could be more important than that?’ Jesus would agree, for He clearly said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be.” In short, where you spend your money reveals the priorities of your heart. So, what does your checkbook say about your priorities? The checkbook doesn’t lie. To all you folks who profess to be Christians, what does your checkbook say about your faith in God? Do you really believe what you profess to believe?”

Am I really listening to God’s message? What does your checkbook say? Where do your (our) priorities lie today? Are we generous or stingy with our giving – time, talent, AND money….? Somehow I don’t think it’s being left up to us to determine whether we’ve been generous or stingy; God will make that call.

“Remember this—a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop. But the one who plants generously will get a generous crop.” – 2 Corinthians 9:6 NLT

46 Degrees

Bright sunshine, no clouds, a hint of a breeze…. It’s 46° outside. I can live with that. In fact, I adore this weather. Cold isn’t as difficult to deal with when the sun is shining. I think it got down in the mid-30’s last night (Fahrenheit, not Celsius!), which is fabulous weather to snuggle up with the pups under flannel sheets and a quilt. If the plants could take it and still produce flowers and fruits and grains and veggie, it wouldn’t bother me to have those low temps every night and 60’s and 70’s every day so the pesty bugs would die. (I don’t like bugs). Wouldn’t that mean we lived in an almost perfect world? Of course, that almost perfect world would also mean that everyone, every single human, would have a warm, soft bed to go to every night, and food so their bellies were full. It would mean that all of the violent, evil people were neutralized, too…..

I think I must be dreaming of heaven. When God created the seasons, He filled them with beautiful symbolism. Spring is new life. Plants are bursting out with beauty, and the animals are filling the planet with their offspring. Babies and flowers and newness, purity, are everywhere. Even in the big cities, grasses poke up through sidewalks, trees leaf out, and birds are busy singing. He created Summer to give everything time to mature, to provide us with the foods we need to survive. Summer is also a time of trials, with too much water or not enough water; with heat that can be both pleasant and devastating. Fall is full with harvest and preparation for the coming Winter. It’s a time to be out and savor the beauty of our earth, the smell and taste and feel of the air around us; a time we prepare what we will need to survive the period of rest for the earth. Finally, Winter is a time to slow down, to relax with the fruits of our endeavours; a time of reflection and contemplation of our lives. It’s the time we need to reconnect with loved ones; to enjoy times with friends and family that we neglected in our times of labor. Then Springs comes again, and the cycle repeats.

I think it’s important to look at the seasons and apply them to our lives. Physically, it easy to see the correlation. Spring is birth and childhood, Summer is young adulthood, finding our way into productivity. Fall is mature adulthood, where we are preparing for retirement and learning to savor our lives. Old age is like Winter, with time for reflection. It should be a time where we can enjoy looking back on our lives and sharing the lessons we have learned with the next generation. Spiritually, I believe our personal Fall and Winter are the times we need to be contemplating our God and perhaps evaluating our relationship with Him. Our personal seasons don’t have a set timeline. Some don’t make it past their Spring because they have died young. Others go out in a blaze, like a fire consuming a forest in the hottest summer. If we make it to our Fall, and I am one of many baby boomers who believed I would have died years ago, some of us find ourselves woefully unprepared for our Winter.

Like the ant and the grasshopper, some are ready for their Winter because they focused on their goal to be ready, and many are like the grasshopper, having spent their productive years playing and jumping around. I was a grasshopper, unable to settle down, too busy having “fun” to focus on anything as unfullfilling as work. Now I am spending my Fall working frantically to prepare. I could be worried to the point of making myself ill, or I can choose to believe that my God is more powerful than anything and place my trust in Him. I choose to believe what Jesus said:

“That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly FATHER feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to Him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?” (Matthew 6:25‭-‬27 NLT)

Do I believe that this means I can just sit back and expect to be taken of; that I shouldn’t be working and preparing for Winter? Not at all! Jesus said not to worry about every day life. He never says not to work. Instead, through Paul’s letter, we are told not to be lazy and to work.

“Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically. Rejoice in our confident Hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. When GOD’S ’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality.”
Romans 12:11‭-‬13 NLT

It’s pretty clear that it is worry we are to avoid, not work. Seems to me that 46° is a beautiful temperature to go to work in….

Fall is Freedom and Thankfulness

Fall. My favorite part of the year. The light changes and becomes softer, muted from summer’s harshness. The winds turn from the south to the north, bringing cooler temperatures. Not yet the unremitting chill from the arctic regions, but a crispness that reminds us to gather in our remaining crops. It puts a briskness into our steps and allows us to breath deep the freshness. Trees and flowers and grasses put on their showy colors in a final burst. The feel of the air; indefinable but deeply felt, invites us to come out and play. It resonates in my soul. I sleep more deeply in the fall. When I can, I put a blanket out in the grass and revel in the freedom to just enjoy.

Do you feel it? Today is a day to be thankful for life. We should be thankful every day, but some days we need to let go of the everyday, the mundane, and just be thankful.

“Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if GOD cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, He will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith? Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need. “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” ” – Matthew 6:27‭-‬30‭, ‬33‭-‬34 NLT (also Luke 12)

We are blessed with glorious fall weather today. I pray that wherever you are, whatever you are doing, you will take a moment to step outside and give thanks to the LORD, the Creator, for life and breath. Breathe deeply and make a gratitude list, from having toilet paper and running water, to having adequate shelter and clothing and transportation. Remember how GOOD our God is, even in the the tragedies and losses of our lives. Amen.

Colorado aspens; October 2016.