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“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.

 

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“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.

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“The Best Gift”

Gifts!

Christmas is just a day away!  It is hard to believe it has been another year.  Thinking back over the years what has been the gift that meant the most to you?  I definitely remember mine.  It is amazing how so many Christmases can pass but at least one or two really stick out.

I especially remember the year I was probably around 10.  My brother bought me a gift he was so excited about.  I remember getting the catalogs that had all the Christmas ideas in them.  You that are older all remember them, right?  There were the Sears, JCPenny, Montgomery Wards catalogs and probably some others that I don’t remember.  We would pour over those catalogs dreaming of having the gifts there.  They had all these wonderful things for you to use with your dolls and I loved to dream about them.

Then that wonderful Christmas came.  Even to this day, I don’t remember what else I got, I just remember that one special gift my brother got me and I still have it today.  It was a baby highchair.  It was made out of wood with a cushioned seat and a cushioned back that was removable.  I used that chair so much and got so much joy out of it.  As I recall it was a real sacrifice.  My brother paid $10 for it.  That seems inexpensive to us today but at that time when you paid around $0.65 for a gallon of gas, you had to work really hard to earn $10.  Now that my brother is gone it is even more precious to me.

Giving

Now that I am older what I love most about Christmas is not the gifts I receive as much as giving.  It is so fun to see the expressions of joy on the face of a child when they receive a gift.  Our children loved to get clothes even before they hit their teenage years.  They were responsible to buy their clothes so if they didn’t have to buy clothes it was a great thing.

I have always been a practical buyer.  On the other hand, my husband always bought gifts that were too old for their age or too frivolous to last long.  But for several years now I do most of the Christmas shopping and everyone contributes money.  Then every gift someone gets is from everyone.  As the children get older the gifts get more expensive so this is very helpful, practical, and works well.

Don’t Forget…

We don’t want to get so caught up in all that is happening and forget the best Christmas.  Now we all know that Christ was not born this time of year.  But this is a time to remember.  He was the very best gift that anyone of us has received.  At least it has been offered to us but it is up to us to accept the gift.  And unwrap the gift.  We can unwrap the gift of Christ every day as we open His Word.  And He gives us the most precious gift of the Holy Spirit that can lead and guide into all truth.  Just like I love the joy of seeing others receive a gift, Christ is overjoyed when we receive His gift and unwrap it.

We cannot unwrap the Gift without the Holy Spirit.  The fact is, we can do nothing without the Holy Spirit indwelling in us.  We may be able to try or seem like we are doing the right things.  But if we are doing it with our strength and not allowing the Holy Spirit to do it we will be as the 5 foolish virgins.

Unwrapping

Have you ever asked for a gift for Christmas?  There was something you really wanted or needed and you asked in hopes you would get it.  As a kid and you saw the presents under the tree did you ever wonder if it is what you asked for?  And then you decided to carefully open it to see?  I never did that but I have known people that have done it.

When they carefully opened it they were so excited to see they got what they wanted.  But then Christmas Eve or Christmas morning, depending on when you open when they opened their gift the excitement wasn’t the same.  It seemed almost disappointing.

It makes me think about how God gave us the gift of His Son.  And when Jesus left this earth He gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit.  When we unwrap the Word of God with excitement to see what Gift He has for us the excitement doesn’t last.  And it is because we open the Gift before the time.  We think we want a sneak peek and the excitement seems so real but it wears off in time because we unwrap it before the time.

We get in a dig into the Word, unwrapping each text and seeing all the things that God wants us to do.  And we start to implement them into our lives but there seems to be a problem.  We are doing all the “right things” so we just keep plugging along.  But we are angry, unforgiving, critical, finger-pointing, etc.

The Gift within a Gift

Even though we have unwrapped His Word we have forgotten a Gift that will make the unwrapping and the doing not about us but about Him.  We can do nothing without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  God gave His Son as a gift to us but without the Gift that Jesus gave to us, we are nothing.  Jesus said, “Without Me, ye can do nothing” John 15:5 last part.  And “without Me” is the Holy Spirit dwelling within us.

We choose but He does the work!  The parable of the wise and foolish virgins is a good example.  They were all church members, following the Lord in everything.  But the wise virgins were allowing the Holy Spirit to do the work through them, nothing of themselves.  Whereas, the foolish were doing it with their own strength.  They were both waiting for the coming of the Lord but when He came the foolish were lacking the indwelling workings of the Holy Spirit.

When Jesus lived and walked this earth as you and I, He did nothing of Himself.  It was only through the power of His Father.  If He used His own power for anything He would have had an advantage over us.  We can have the same power because it is the Power of Jesus through His Holy Spirit.  And if our own “power” gets in the way we will be as the foolish virgins.  We need to allow Christ through His Spirit to change us so that we have nothing to boast of ourselves but of Him.

Two gifts

So to me, there are two great gifts to be thankful for this Christmas season.  The first gift is the gift of Jesus Who came from the glories of Heaven to this sinful earth to live a life fully through the power of His Father.  And He died for all the sins of this world so that we have an opportunity for Heaven.

The second gift is the gift of the Holy Spirit.  This gift gives us the ability to be ready for Jesus’ second coming.  We are saved through the precious blood shed by our loving Savior so that we can have forgiveness for our sins.  And through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, we can live a victorious life.  Although we are saved by Jesus shed blood we are rewarded by our works, which should be the work of the Holy Spirit living through us and nothing of ourselves.  So the reward of Heaven will be given us as we ask the Holy Spirit to live within us and by allowing Him to perform the work that needs to be done in our lives.  We need to ask for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit each day.

Dear Father,

Thank you for the gifts that You have given to us.  I pray for the power of Your Spirit to come and dwell within our hearts.  Come dwell in us not only during this Christmas season but every day for the rest of our lives.  Help us to turn to You during every time of need asking for Your Spirit to perform the work within us.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Remember if Jesus could do nothing of Himself we surely cannot either.  Allow the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to do the work through you today.

Love you all and I pray you have a blessed Christmas.

Can you share an experience where you felt the power of the Holy Spirit working in your life and you knew it was nothing of yourself but a gift?  I would love to hear your testimony below.

 

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“The Sun That Shines!!”

A day…

There is nothing like a day where the sun shines.  It makes everyone more pleasant.  And it seems that more people smile.  There is something the sun gives that changes the life.

A couple of days ago was just such a day.  I was home alone for a few hours, which is unheard of.  We had just had a downpour just the day before so everything was green.  And now the sun was shining brightly.  It made for a wonderful morning.  I actually went out and laid on our trampoline in the bright sunshine.  It felt so amazing!  As I lay there soaking up the sunshine I was also listening to the nature sounds.  Many birds were singing and I could hear the buzz of many bugs.  It was so peaceful and pleasant.

But then…

The day was so pleasant you would think that nothing could change it.  But then I heard it thunder.  I was looking to see where it was coming from because the sky was so blue.  In the distance, there were some dark clouds coming my way.  I watched in amazement as those clouds came closer and the thunder got louder.  And what was so amazing?  It was the split between the sunshine with blue sky and the dark clouds.  There was a definite contrast.  On one side of the sky were the dark ugly clouds and on the other side the beautiful blue sky.

I was inside the house at this point.  And then it happened.  The burst of rain!  It poured rain!!  The rain was coming down so hard and fast that puddles were forming in seconds.  And yet I could still see some blue sky and the sunshine peeking through.  It is not often you see both together.  But there is the bright side.  The rain watered the earth and made things green.

Fear factor…

There is always the fear factor every time we have with thunder and lightning.  There is a fear of fire.  It seems that even though we are only into June things are drying out so quickly.  It would only take one strike of that lightning to cause a fire that could destroy everything.  I can say I don’t always think about it.  But when I do I pray for rain, because as the clouds burst forth with the rain and waters the earth it helps keeps the fire danger down.  And if a strike did happen the rain puts it out as quickly as it started.  We have been saved more than one time from fire, that we know about, and probably multiple times that we don’t know about because the rain came and put it out.

What about…

Then it made me start to think.  What about our lives?  Are there days that the Son is shining and the “sky” (our lives) is blue (going smoothly)?  Life is going great!!  We feel close to God and go on in life with no thought of anything changing.  Everything is so beautiful.  But there is this unsuspecting cloud coming that we are unaware of because we are basking in the Presence of God.

And then we hear the rumbles of a trial.  Sometimes we can see a trial coming and other times it is a total shock.  But there are those times where you sense or can see a forthcoming trial.  Sometimes we get more prepared other times we ignore it but it still comes.  We start to see the “lightning” and hear the “thunder”.  And it continues to draw closer and closer to us.

Fear factor…

Then comes the fear factor.  We wonder if we are going to be struck with “lightning” (succumb to the trial or temptation).  Is an evil “fire” going to start that will burn up our spiritual lives?  Have we become so dry that nothing can stop it from burning?  Are we going to get discouraged or reach out for more support and help?

We have to realize that there is help and we don’t have to succumb to discouragement or give in to temptations.  All we need to do is to call out for a power higher than ourselves.  We need to cry out to God.  And as we cry out to God “rain” (Holy Spirit) will come with power and will squelch out any spark of a “fire”.  God is our strength and He will fight for us.

Dear Father,

Thank You for always being there for us.  We are a forgetful people.  It is hard for us to give up our control and to allow You to control.  Continue to show us our need of You.  And help us in the process of surrendering to You in the good times as well as in the time of trial and temptation.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Make sure to reach out and stay connected with God at all times.  So that when the trials and temptations come it will be automatic to turn to God.

Love you all.

We have all had trial and temptations.  But is there one that has happened in your life where you called out to God and you have seen His work?  I would love to hear your story.  Share below.