Posted on

“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.

 

Posted on

“The Challenge!”

Challenge!

We have all embarked on a challenge in our life at one time or another.  It might have been the challenge of getting a college degree.  Or maybe you have challenged yourself to some physical achievement.  Whatever the challenge is you have to prepare for it.  And when you think you are ready for the challenge some times it is more challenging than you imagined.  My son did a challenge recently.  It was the challenge of climbing a local mountain the equivalent high of Mt Everest from sea level to the top, which is 29,029 feet.  He planned to do it straight.

Why?

Many people would wonder why in the world would he do such a thing.  He had decided that he wanted to do an Everest challenge but wanted to raise money for a local institution.  He had thought about raising money for a place that helps kids that suffer from learning disabilities because of his own struggles with learning.  But he could not find a place that he could involve.

Then he started thinking about a friend who at the age of 22 had committed suicide. Maybe he could find a local place that helps people that deal with mental health issues and help prevent suicides.  He found a local place and they were excited about the idea of being able to receive money.  They do a lot of free help and they need donations to keep going.  And then my brother committed suicide.  At that point, he made the push forward to make this happen.

His desire was suicide awareness.  Suicide is on the rise and we need to be aware.  And there are places that people can reach out to and get help.  A lot of times people won’t reach out to their family or friends.  But there are places that they can reach out to for help.  And he wanted to raise money to help this local crisis center.

Getting started

We got up before 3 a.m. the first morning.  By the time we packed up and got there he was able to start hiking around 5 am.  He had picked the steepest trail of the mountain because it would be fewer miles for the elevation.

We set up an aid station ready to do whatever he needed when he would arrive back after each ascent.  It didn’t take long for us to discover what foods were best for him and what foods did not work well.  One round he ended up sick and threw up because of what he had eaten.  From that time on we kept things very simple.  There were only like 3 or 4 things that he would eat.  He made sure to stay hydrated and kept his electrolytes up.  Another thing that he did was take a complex that helps support the joints and muscles with the discomfort and also a cream that he put on his knees and legs.  He also took a natural energy and stamina complex that helped with endurance.

Enduring

Any time someone enters into a challenge I think if they really knew what was ahead they may not choose to do it.  But thankfully we don’t know.  The hardest part for my son was hiking in the dark.  He was very fatigued and hiking alone.  In those moments he had to keep his mind focused.  Your thoughts can run wild and if you don’t stay focused a person could give up altogether.

When he started his journey his average for one round was about 1 hour and 15 minutes.  But as time went on and he got more fatigued it took him 1 hour and 30 minutes.  Before he ended it was taking him more like 1 hour and 45 minutes.  In order to reach the elevation, he was aiming for he had to hike up and down 16 1/2 times.

Support

As he hiked through the night we were there for him each time he came down.  But I also talked with him as he walked via the phone during those hardest times.  The next morning I decided to go up the mountain on his 15th time to meet him.  I met him halfway up the hill and came down with him.  And then I went up for his last trip, which he only had to go half way up.

I couldn’t imagine doing this challenge myself it was so grueling.  By the time he was done he had hiked for 28-1/2 hours, ascended and descended a little more than 29,029 feet, with only a 30-minute nap in over 30 hours.  It was tough!  What kept him going?  He had to keep his eye on the goal.  If he had wavered on the goal he would have failed.  Yes, he was discouraged at times but he still kept going, keeping his eye on the goal.

Another kind of…

There is another kind of challenge.  This challenge is achieving a higher elevation than 29,029 feet.  And each one of us as Christians has chosen this challenge.  Our goal is heaven.  It is like climbing a mountain.  There are times that it is so “steep” we don’t know if we can keep going.  Then as we get through those grueling times we have a mountain top experience.  And then we have a descent in our lives.

You know how it is when you go hiking.  You’re climbing a path and you’re getting tired you can’t wait to start down.  So you get there and what beauty there is at the top.  You start your journey down and it does not take long to realize that your knees can hardly take it.  Your knees become so painful.

Why?

When we become Christians we may be asked why.  There may be family and friends that question why we would give up the “fun” life and become a Christian.  Why would you want to go up that grueling mountain of “rules and regulations”?

The reasons are similar to the goal of an athlete/mountain climber.  It is to win!  It is to accomplish a goal that has been set.  The difference is that the Christian wants to win the race of life so that he or she can live eternally.  We don’t get a gold medal like here on earth.  But to me what we do get is the best trophy ever.  We get to be with Jesus who gave His very life so that we can be in a world without sin and sorrow.

Getting started

So when it comes to the goal for the Christian how do you get started?  What are the steps to success?  Just like my son started in the early morning for the success of his goal, started early with God is the way to start.  Each day we should start our day with God, reading His Word and in prayer.  We should be communing with Him throughout our day.  Each evening opening our hearts to God asking Him to reveal any sins that we have committed during the day.  As He reveals to us we can confess and forsake those sins.  Sin is a burden that makes our journey harder.

Enduring

In order to make our goal as a Christian, we need to endure until the end.  The journey can be grueling at times.  When we have a mountain top experience in our Christian walk it feels great.  We have struggled and as we get to the top the beauty is spectacular.  But then things happen that start us on a downturn.

We may start to realize that something is not right.  Our “knees”(experience) seem to be “aching” but what is the problem.  The reality is that we have started down from our mountain top experience.  At this point, we need to fall on our knees asking God to show us how to continuing in our journey for the goal of heaven.  And He will help us.  We need to keep our focus on the goal.

Support

We cannot make it in the Christian race without a support team and we have the greatest support team ever, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

It is great to have a human support team.  Having a church family is great for support.  But they will not always be there for us.  We need to have our full trust in God.  God is the greatest support.  We can “call” any time and talk, during the good and bad times.

Just like my son struggled in the darkest hour of the night we as Christians sometimes struggle.  In those darkest hours, God is there and all we need to do is “call” Him and He will see us through.  He will feed us from His Word and give us encouraging thoughts that He brings into our minds.  He encourages us to rest in Him.  This journey can be very tiring if we are not resting in Him.

Dear Father,

Thank You that You are always there as a support team for anyone that will accept it.  Help us in keeping our eyes focused on the goal of heaven.  Keep our minds on You bringing Your Word to our minds throughout the day.  Give us the strength that we need by empowering us with Your Holy Spirit.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Keep your eyes on the goal and don’t waver.

Love you all.

Do you have an experience that you have been through where you know that God was there beside you and seen you through?  Please share your experience below.  I would love to hear it.

Note to my readers:  Due to my limited time, I will be cutting back on how many times I am writing per month.  Instead of writing once a week I am going to start by doing one every other week and see how that goes.  I pray you are blessed by my experiences and what God shows me through those experiences.

Posted on

“The Machine is Down Again?!!!”

Disaster!

Have you ever felt as if everything is against you?  Things don’t go well at home, school, work, etc.  It seems like every step you make fails in some way.  And of course, your stress level is through the roof.

The stress has seemed to build in the last week and a half at my work.  It has caused stress for all involved.  I run a digital machine at a print shop.  One day a little over a week ago I made, what I thought was a routine call for a repair.  It wasn’t a big problem I was having with the print quality but it needed fixing.  The repairman came out the next day “fixed” the problem and we were good to go.  At least we thought it was fixed.

The next day…

The next day the problem started again.  The shop foreman had told me to go ahead and put in a call near the end of the day forgetting the fact that the next day was the end of the month.  We are always pushing as much out as possible the last day.  When digital is down it brings a real problem in getting through the work.

This time when the guy came for repairs he brought a helper and they got into the machine and replaced a lot of parts along with cleaning the machine.  In the process of taking out one of the rollers, which has a small long bulb that runs through it for heat, he broke the bulb.  No big deal right?  Wrong!!  They did not have another one to replace it.  So they had to order the part from back east.  It should be in the next day around 10 am and then they would have to come in and finish the work.  This was around 12 am so for me that meant time off.  So I went home early and didn’t come back in until around 11 am the next day.  Things got back together and I was finally able to print again.

Or was it?

I did start printing and the guy stuck around for a little while to see if things were going to go well.  It seemed good so off he went.  I started to notice that there was some kind of debris coming out with the paper when I was printing.  It was a concern to me.  Then I notice another problem.  There were some marks being made on the paper as well.  I opened up the machine to see if there was anything that I could see and all this debris was coming out of the machine.  By this time it was near the end of the day again.  So again I put in another call to service.

The next day the repair guy came right away in the morning.  He opened up the machine and started to take some things apart.  As he took things apart debris just fell out.  He was amazed that the machine had not thrown an error code.  Something had happened and it had totally shredded a belt.

He got everything cleaned up and got things running.  He stuck around for a while and noticed that there was another problem.  The machine was not heating up right.  And it was leaving a rub mark on the prints as well.  He figured out what the problem was but he had no parts for it.  It was Friday by now and he would order the parts and then be back on Monday around 10:30 am.  In the meantime, I could only run a certain weight paper because the heat wasn’t working for the more heavy paper.

Monday…

On Monday I waited and went into work around 10 am.  There had been some other lightweight jobs that had come in so I started printing them.  My boss came to let me know the repair guy called and the parts he had ordered were not going to arrive from back east that day as they were supposed to.  He was driving to another location, which was a 4-hour round trip drive to pick up the part.  So he arrived at about 12 pm.

The unusual thing is that the heating problem had gone away and we couldn’t see the rub mark anymore.  So he was afraid to even touch the machine since it seemed to be working now.  We didn’t know why but it was.  He stuck around for a few jobs and everything seemed to be fine.  So he finally left.  He wasn’t gone long when I notice the rub mark again.  It was only in a certain area so I could only run certain things that it did not show up on, how frustrating.

By this time we decided to wait until the end of the day to call it in so I could get as much printing done as possible being we had so much downtime.  I tried to put in a request on the computer after 5 pm so that a repair guy would contact us in the morning.  The repair guy had not closed out the last repair so it would not let me put in a new one.  I had his phone number so I texted him.  He said how sorry he was about the digital print not being fix and that he would come first thing in the morning.

Tuesday…

When he got there it did not take him long to see that there was a roller that needed replacing.  It had just been replaced last week but with all the debris from the belt that shredded it probably did damage to it.  He was concerned because that was the roller that the other repair guy had been trying to fix when he broke the bulb that ran through the center.  The new repair guy planned to be very careful.  The way that it is put together is not the best.  He proceeded to remove the roller but yes he broke the bulb.  Afterward, he let me know that it was not a big deal because the other repair guy had ordered two when he ordered.  He said, “I will just go pick it up from him and be back in about 20 minutes.”

When he arrived back I was working in the back in the bindery.  We were all discussing what would happen if he broke the second and last one.  Within seconds the guy came back and told me when he opened the box the bulb was broken in 3 pieces.  The choices were to order another one, which would arrive the next day around 10 am.  Or he could take a 4 hour round trip to the different location, where he had gone the day before and get the part there.  Of course, we asked him to drive and get it.  We needed our machine up and running.

Home…

The repair guy headed off for his 4-hour trip while I went home for a few hours.  The frustration I felt was unspeakable.  Financially we could not afford for me to lose hours and I had lost so many already.  I knew that I needed to quit thinking about it and just make the best of my time doing things that needed to be done at home.  It actually felt good to be home and I do miss it a great deal.

Soon the time came for me to head back to work.  The repair guy was there and things went quickly.  When I started printing the repair guy stuck around for another 30 minutes just to be sure that things were going to run well.  Then he left.

More problems…

He hadn’t been gone 30 minutes when I noticed another problem.  My foreman said let’s try to get through as much printing as we can before we call in again.  So I waited another few hours until the end of the day.

He came the next morning and fixed the problem.  And we were off and running again for a few hours.  It is Friday now and we are now waiting until Monday for another part.  Another repair guy did a temp fix that we know could quick working at any time.  Every time I pushed the print button I prayed it would work and I made it through the day on the temporary fix.  The question is when is this going to be over?  I don’t know!  It has been frustrating.  I have lost money, my boss has lost money and it has affected 3 other guys also in lack of hours.  And it has affected our customers and gives the potential for losing customers.

Learning…

But with all these problems what can I learn.  Because we all go through trials every day, right?  We can always learn things in all our everyday experiences.  God wants to teach us things.  The number one thing He wants to teach us is to trust Him.  He is beside us to guide us through all circumstances.  We just need to reach out to Him.  I am planning on a miracle.  Because even though I made less money I want to see how He is going to bless that money to fulfilled the needs that it provides.

Another lesson that came to me in this experience is that the digital machine is a lot like us.  The machine is fairly new, maybe a year and a half old.  And it reminds me of when a person decides to give their heart to the Lord.  You may or may not have grown up in a Christian home.  But you have to come to a point in your life where you surrender and give your heart to God.  And you become a new creation, just like a brand new digital machine.

But then…

Everything seems to be going well with our brand new walk with God.  We are having victories and we are on fire for God.  But as time goes by we tend to get distracted.  The devil makes sure it happens.  Things in our life start to breakdown.  It starts out small, just a “little print” quality.  Maybe we fail to spend the quality time we need one day.  We realize we need to get back connected so we seek out the Repair Man.  God is always there to help repair our lives and the great thing; we don’t have to wait because He is too busy.  We make things right with God and go on our way.

But the next day something comes up unexpectedly and your time with God is cut short again.  Believe me, the devil will make sure there are distractions if we are not intentional.  We get a little stitch of time with God but not what it should be.  And sometimes it goes into days, weeks, and even months that our quality time is diminished.

Major repair…

Before we know it we have become so spiritually wore out that we need major repairs.  The great thing about God is that when we let Him He repairs everything the first time.  But a lot of times what happens is that we don’t allow Him to get in and do the repairs before we allow life to take over again and get in the way of spending that quality time.  And every time we do that the need for repairs become more major.  The outcome can be different for everyone depending on how long we keep letting things go and not allowing God to fully repair us.

God is the only one that can do the major repairs that we need.  But we have to make a total and complete surrender to Him and allow Him to do it.  And we have to commit to spending the quality time with Him.  Believe me, I am speaking to myself as I write this.  It is so easy to get distracted.  And God also gives us so many opportunities to connect with Him throughout the day.

Time…

We need to have that special time each morning where we spend time in prayer and study of God’s Word.  And if we don’t initially schedule it in it won’t happen.  Besides our scheduled time, we should take advantage of every opportunity to connect with God.

For those of us who drive to work, we can be praying during those times.  Praying out loud can keep us focused.  This is a great time to pray about those things that are really on your heart for yourself, family, friends, etc.  It is a great way to keep yourself on track with keeping connected with God and keep your sanity while driving with “crazy” people on the road.  You can also be listening to God’s Word while you are traveling.  Some may be able to listen to God’s Word while they are working depending on where you work and what you are doing.  I actually have that opportunity at work and I love it.

Dear Father,

We live in such a crazy busy world.  Forgive us for not making you the priority that we should. I want to surrender my time to You and make sure that my time is used wisely.  I pray for the problems with my machine at work and for those that may be having troubles at their work.  Help us to reach out to You more and be a witness to Your power.  Thank You for the lessons that You teach us through the trials.  And I am praising Your name to see how You are going to stretch my paycheck this pay period.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Surrender all to God today.  Be intentional about your time with Him.

Love you all!

What trial has come into your life that you have learned some lessons from?  I would love to hear it.  Please share below.

Posted on

“The Rest That Can Bring Complete Rest!!” Part 8

Rest?

Yes, rest!  There is a rest that can give you the most out of each day and out of each night sleep.  And this rest goes beyond just relaxing.  The fact is we can do all the right things for our bodies to be healthy, eat right, exercise, get plenty of sleep, etc, but if we do not learn how to deal with the stresses of everyday life it will affect our immune systems and ultimately our health.

The question is how can we get rid of our stresses.  We are bombarded with different stresses every day.  But I believe there are some stresses that we can eliminate.  I don’t know what those might be for you.  Maybe you have a very stressful job that you need to eliminate.  How about the news, maybe you need to eliminate it.  There are always some things that we can control.  We are bombarded with so many negative things that bring stress and we don’t need to fill our minds with those things.

But the question is what about the things we can’t eliminate.  At that point, it boils down to trust. And I am talking about trust in Whom, not what.  I am not talking about trusting in you, that is the worst kind of stress you can bring on yourself.  “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give your REST.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find REST unto your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” Matthew 11:28-30.  Now there is some serious rest.  We need to be yoked up with Christ.  As we lay our burdens on Him, He will carry them for us.   And we need to trust Him with our burdens and quit taking them back.

While Resting

There is a difference between physical sleep and the rest that Jesus wants to give us.  We should sleep a certain amount of hours every 24 hours.  But resting in Christ should be 24/7.  There are so many things that take place when we are resting in Christ.

The growth that takes place in our spiritual life is best accomplished when we are resting.  As we rest in Christ in all circumstances healing begins to take place in our spiritual life.  The toxins of our past begin to evaporate and repairs take place.

Now we can’t just rest in Jesus.  We need to be doing all the foundational things that I have already talked about in previous writings.  We need to be feeding ourselves wholesome spiritual food, reading God’s Word being the best option.  Exercising our spiritual muscles by memorizing God’s Word helps us in time of temptation, especially when we are struggling with resting in Christ.  And most of all, we need to make sure that we are “breathing deeply” (praying).  These are foundational for getting the rest we need in Christ.

Our spiritual immune systems can’t even begin to keep up with the toxins of this world.  And the repairs, if we are bombarding our spiritual life with things that our poisons to us, will never be accomplished.  We can’t avoid or control everything we are subjected to every day in this world but we need to control what we can.  Evaluate your life and make sure that you are not poisoning your spiritual life with the choices that you are making.  We can’t get proper spiritual rest when we are filled with toxins and poisons.

Preparing for proper rest

It is so important what we put into our spiritual life.  And we are not going to be able to rest properly if we are putting in the wrong things.  Just like it is good to eliminate bad foods for our physical health, we need to eliminate bad reading material.  We should not be filling our minds with things that do not uplift us spiritually or draw us away from God.  Most of us know deep within our hearts that we cannot have proper spiritual rest if we filling our minds with ungodly things.

There is another factor that can affect our spiritual health and whether we can rest properly.  How much time do you spend in God’s Word compared to other material?  There are many wonderful foods that we can eat for our physical body.  But when we eat too much at night too close to going to bed it affects whether we get proper rest.  I believe it works the same for our spiritual life.

There are many writings out there that are good and wholesome.  But as we are approaching “night” (Christ coming) we need to make sure that we are “eating” less of the good wholesome writings and more of God’s Word if we are going to be able to have proper rest through the darkness of night.  We need to know God’s Word so well that when we no longer have it to read it will be hidden in our hearts to bring us through the night in restful peace.

More Factors

For proper physical sleep, we need to have a room that is void of all artificial light so that we have total darkness.  But for proper spiritual rest, we need something a little different.  We do need to have our lives void of any “artificial light”.  But we do not want any darkness in our spiritual lives.  Proper rest for our spiritual lives we need to be void of all “artificial light” and filled with the light that comes from God.  God’s light will shine in all the corners of our lives and sees all the dark corners that need to be eliminated with His truth.  And when we are filled with His light we get the proper spiritual rest we need.

Now some people may think I am crazy on this next point but I have seen the results in my own life.  There are studies that show that we have to be off our electronics 1-2 hours before going to bed to get proper rest.  It is best if you are going to read before going to bed to read an actual book.  I believe this it is true spiritually as well.  Now don’t get me wrong I think electronics have helped us in many ways when it comes to studying God’s Word, in one sense.  But I also believe it has been a hindrance.

I thought it was really great when I got a smartphone.  I could carry my Bible with me everywhere.  But I started to use it all the time instead of opening up my Bible.  What I found started to happen is that when I did pick up my Bible I couldn’t remember where to find the books of the Bible.  As “night” is drawing near, I think we need to be more in the Word in its natural state.  There is something about picking up that sacred Book and holding it in our hands and actually reading from its pages.  I believe we can rest better.  What screens do to our brain compared to just picking up a book is profound.  We can rest better physically as well as spiritually if we pick up the actual books and read them.

Helpers

God has given us things in nature that we can do that can help calm us or relax us so that we can get good physical rest but what about spiritual rest.  What are the helpers that we can use?

Believe it or not when our bodies are in the physical condition that God would have us to be in it actually helps us with our spiritual rest as well.  So it is very important for us to be following God’s health plan.  And even if we are eating all the things that God has made for us to eat but there is one of those food items that our body can’t handle we need to eliminate it.  We live in a degenerate world.  And because of that some of us may have sensitivities to some foods that we need to eliminate.  When we feel good physically it is amazing how much that affects our spiritual life.  And the same is true when our spiritual life is where it should be it affects our physical life.

Resting in Christ is really a choice.  No one can force us.  And it takes faith in the One Who created us, trusting that He knows what is best for us.  “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you” 1Peter 5:7.

Reading the promises that God has for us can be a helper in resting in Him.  A really good book in the Bible to use for this is Proverbs.  The great thing about Proverbs is that it has 31 chapters.  Now take that book and read one chapter each day of the month, matching up the day of the month with the chapter.  Some months you will just read through 30 chapters and other months 31 chapters.  You can either read it just before going to bed or in the morning.  Better yet read the chapter twice in the day, once in the morning and once before going to bed.  After a while, you will have the book of Proverbs memorized.  Proverbs is full of wisdom, instruction, and comfort.

Getting out in God’s nature can help us rest in Him.  When we see the birds of the air and how they are filled with joy we see God at work.  Look at the flowers and how beautiful God has made them and how they still give off their beauty even in a storm.  Nature is God’s remedy for our physical as well as our spiritual lives.

Dear Father,

Thank You for being there for us.  And for being Someone we can rely on in every situation.  Thank You that we can rest in You if we so choose.  You are the only One that can give us rest.

Thank You for Your patience with us.  Continue to guide us through our lives.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

No matter what your circumstances give all to Christ and let Him carry it.  You can find rest in Him only when you realize Your weakness without Him.

What do you do that helps you rest in Christ?  Please share below.

This is part 8 in a several part series “Maintaining Healthy Immune Function”.  There are many things I will be sharing with you on how to support your immune system, both physically and spiritually.  Although what I am sharing is not exhaustive, I am sharing just a taste from my own experience.  In part 7 I talked about how important proper physical rest is and how it helps us maintain healthy immune function.  Coming up in part 9 I will be talking about toxic load.  We are bombarded with toxins every day and our bodies can become overwhelmed.  What can we do to help reduce toxic load so that we can “Maintain Healthy Immune Function”?  Stay tuned!

Posted on

“It’s Over!!”

The New Year is coming!

It is hard to believe that another year has passed.  The year has gone so quickly that it feels like a dream.  How many of you are looking back at your year and wish things could have been different?  Maybe there are things that you have done or said you wish you could take back?  Or maybe you’re looking at the New Year thinking about what next goal you can set to try to achieve?

It seems like a lot of people have a New Years resolution.  And most of the time it doesn’t last for long.  It seems that the most popular resolutions are to eat better, exercise more, and lose weight.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with these resolutions.  I do have one for the coming year and that is to be more regular in my exercise.

Failure

What tends to happen is a person starts out well but they may eat something that is not healthy, or a day goes by without exercising and they give it all up because they failed once.  This is a problem.  When we fail we should not get discouraged and stop we should reset our goals and start again.  Every day is a new day and a fresh start.  We don’t have to live on yesterday’s mistakes or tomorrows goals we just live today.

Setting goals are well and good and we should do it because that is what keeps us motivated.  But don’t beat yourself up when you do fail, just get up and keep going.  I am going to give you some tips on setting goals and how to keep them.  Keeping your New Year’s resolutions is a choice every single moment, day, week, month, year.  But I believe that you cannot do it alone.

Get your priorities straight

There is a “must” in setting goals.  It starts with making a commitment to allow the Lord to lead in your life.  We are unable to stick to our commitments without the aid of God.  We may think we can and we may try.  But I can tell you by experience that it is way easier to have the Lord to depend on.

I know you have heard these excuses and have made them yourself.  “I don’t have time to exercise.”  “I didn’t have time to eat a decent meal I just had to grab it on the go.”  “I accidentally slept in.”  “The food looked so good I could not resist.”  “I can never lose this weight, it’s impossible.”  “I don’t have time to spend with God.”

Alarm clocks

You might be thinking, “What do alarm clocks have to do with New Year resolutions?”  Well, I believe that “alarm clocks” are the key to success when setting goals.  And I have the best “Alarm Clock” ever made and I want to share it with you.

When starting the New Year you have to get your priorities straight.  You have to make a commitment.  I believe to make your day, week, month, year successful you need to make a morning commitment.  It is important for you to get up in the morning so you want to make sure you set your “Alarm”.

The best Alarm that I have found is God.  I have found this to be so true in my life.  I ask the Lord to wake me in the morning and He does it faithfully every day.  And when He wakes me I am wide-awake.  Now, can I hit the snooze button on God?  Yes, I can and I have done it.  It usually comes in the form of, “I’ll just lay here and pray for a few minutes.” Or we make similar excuses.  Something that sounds so legit.  And without fail, I go back to sleep.  What is amazing to me is that when I wake up the next time I feel groggy and I don’t feel as good the rest of the day.  Make God your alarm clock.

Simple 30-minute startup

I want to give you a simple 30-minute startup that you can easily commit to doing every single day.  Upon rising:

  1. Get a large glass of water. For me, I like to drink a quart of warm water and drink it in a fairly short period of time.  It is a good cleanser first thing in the morning flushing toxins that have built through the night.  But you can choose how much water and what temperature you want.  I am not going to count this into your 30 minutes because this should not take long.  If you choose to heat your water you can lead into #2 while you are heating and drinking your water.
  2. Spend around 5 minutes in prayer and gratitude to God. I definitely spend more time in prayer than this but this is a great place to start.  We need to be grateful every day.  Our tendency is to look at the negatives in the past year.  Instead, look at what the Lord has done in your life, look at the positive.  As you start to be grateful you will see more and more positive things.
  3. Spend 10 minutes reading your Bible or your favorite book that draws you to God. Again I spend more time than 10 minutes.  And I have found that the Lord will wake me up in plenty of time to spend more time.  And He also multiplies the time.  He is so faithful.
  4. Spend 15 minutes in some form of exercise. I like walking.  Just try to pick something that you will do.  I have a treadmill and I like to get on it. One reason I like the treadmill is that I can listen to something while I do it.  So while I am on my treadmill I listen to the Bible on audio.  This is a good way to do two things at once.  I also have used this time to memorize Scripture or even spending more time in prayer.  After you exercise, make sure to get a glass of water in.

Now you can go on with your day, as usual, making sure that you have invited the Lord to attend you throughout the day.  I have found that not only is God a great wake up alarm but as I invite Him to accompany me throughout the day that He also sets off the “alarm” when I start to do something that is not in line with the commitments I have made.

You have it made

If God is reminding us of our commitments what is there to worry about?  I know that God is always faithful but my commitments can be like ropes of sand.  Knowing God will “alarm” me I don’t have to worry.  But I do need to make sure that when He does warn me that I listen and don’t hit the snooze button and go ahead and do my own thing.  God is always there we are the ones that walk away.

Dear Father,

Thank You for always being there for us.  Thank You that You are always willing to forgive.  Help us in this New Year to stay more committed and connected with You.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Let God lead you in the commitments you make in this coming year.  And allow Him to help you stick to it.

Have you great New Year!  Love you all.

Have you asked God to wake you in the morning?  How has it worked for you? Comment below.

 

Posted on

“40 Years?!!”

Life is short!

When you think about the average of lifespan on this earth it is a very short time.  The older I get the more I realize it.  The average is what?  Around 80 years, give or take a few.  There are so many factors but we know that it is short.  And the bottom line is that it can be even shorter than that.  We never know when we walk out the door in the morning if we are coming home.  So this day could be our last no matter what your age, 18…40…50, you name it.

Accident

It came to my mind more vividly one day as I was driving home from town.  At one of the lights, I was going through, there had been a recent accident.  One car had been really smashed on the driver’s side.  It appeared to me that they were working on cutting him out.  I was driving and wanting to make sure I didn’t cause another accident so I couldn’t take in what might have happened.  It appeared that he was alive and I pray that his injuries and all that were involved will heal quickly.

But it made me think.  All it takes is one accident and your life can be over or changed forever.  And the big question is, am I ready?  My judgment has been decided if I die and have allowed God to keep my heart connected to His.  I know that if I am permanently damaged that God will give me the strength for as I need it.  But if I am not staying closely connected with Him now it will be harder to stay connected through difficult times.  We need to stay focused on Christ and not lose that focus.

Distractions

There can be so many distractions that can keep us from keeping our eyes on our Savior and staying connected with Him.  There are many that I could address here but I am going to tackle one that I believe is a big one.

Taking our eyes off of Jesus and placing it on others distracts us.  It is so easy to get caught up in looking at others and seeing their wrongs.  As we point the finger or just have negative thoughts about their choices it draws our attention away from where it should be.  We are responsible for ourselves and no one else.  Now some may be saying, “We are responsible for others’ salvation.”  There is truth to that but where our focus is, determines whether we can help others.

When we keep our focus our Jesus and allow Him to work in our lives we then, and only then can we properly witness to others.  We need to have a Christ-like love for others and we cannot do that without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  We are the seed planters and the Holy Spirit is the One that makes it grow.  Somehow we think that we have to make it happen.  We plant seeds and love them even if they don’t accept what we have shared with them.  God is working with each person and He is the One that knows the right timing for each individual.  God doesn’t always bring change overnight.  He brings them through step by step.

How much time?

So how much time will it take for someone to see the truths of God’s Word?  I think one thing that we do is we forget what our own journey has been like.  We want to bring people to our level of knowledge and commitment overnight but how long did it take us to get to where we are.  And another thing, we should be realizing that we have a long ways to go and we have not arrived.  The Lord keeps growing us and we will be growing and learning how to walk the walk until He comes.  We need to give others the freedom to grow.

This reminds me of the story of Moses.  How long did it take for Moses to unlearn the ways of Egypt and to have such a walk with God that he would not waver?  God worked with him for 40 years to get him where He could use him to bring the Children of Israel out of Egypt.  This shows God’s patience and He knows what is needed in someone’s life to bring change.  God has perfect timing.  He is never late, rarely early but always on time.

We are only the seed planters and the only way those seeds can fall and maybe come to fruition is if we do it in love and let the Lord take it from there. We need to get out of His way and let Him work.   And as He works we continue to love and be there for the person through whatever difficulty, without condemnation.  This is a hard thing to do and it cannot be done in our own strength.

Human Nature

Our human nature tends to want people to be where we are in our spiritual journey and if they are not we tend to want to condemn and be critical.   We need God’s help in this area of our lives.  As we look at people we need to see them through the eyes of Christ, who came and died for them.  We can only do this as we stay connected with God.  This makes me realize how much we need to be in prayer and in the Word each and every day.  And spending time each day reading and/or thinking about the life of Christ, especially those last scenes.  If we can understand what He has done for us we can have more compassion for others.  We also need to reflect on where He has brought us from.  How long did it take for us?  We tend to forget how patient the Lord has been with us.  We need to have that same patience with others.

Dear Father,

Help us as we see others to see You as You hung bleeding on the cross for them.  Give us the ability to be earnest, broken and humbled as our petitions ascend to You for wisdom that we may have success in saving, not only our own souls but the souls of others as well.  We can only help in the saving of others as we stay surrendered to You and as we allow You to work through us so we can reflect You.

Forgive us where we have fallen short in reflecting You and work now in our lives that we can perfectly reflect Your character so that we can go home.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Commit today to not say anything negative about another person.  And commit to continue planting seeds in others lives, loving them, and not shunning them because their choices are not what you think they should be.

Love you all.

What thoughts have gone through your mind when you have seen an accident?  What lessons have you drawn?  Share below.

 

Posted on

“Trapped!!”

Trapped!

Have you ever felt trapped?  Maybe you feel trapped in an unhealthy marriage, friendship, family, or even your job.  What can make the difference?  We can’t always get out of situations that we are in but we can change how it feels.

I am reminded of something that just happened recently at my parents.  My mom called because a Bluebird had managed to make its way down their chimney into their stove.  Dad, who has a really bad shake, needed some help to get it out.  Mom is no help when it comes to things like this.  As a matter of fact, we told her to go outside while we did it.  She gets so freaked out.

My daughter (14) and I went over to help.  We took a plastic bag and taped it around the door and then opened the door with the bag.  We wanted to try to draw the bird into the bag.  But because the bag had to be black, in order to be big enough to go around the door, there was really no light to draw him.

So my daughter used the bag to go in and try to grab him.  The interesting part was that he did not try to fly all over to get away.  We thought that maybe he was injured or near death because he was not trying to get away.  It took a little bit because she could not see what she was doing, but she finally was able to get him.

Anticipation

We carefully closed the door and untapped the bag, closing it carefully in case the bird would get out of my daughter’s hand.  I was anticipating that we would have to maybe care for a bird that was injured or not well.

When we got outside and opened the bag and immediately he flew to the nearest tree.  As he flew out of the bag he started to sing.  Then he landed on a tree branch and sat there and sang and sang and sang.  We felt as if he was thanking us for helping him.  We realized that he had felt that we were trying to help him and that was why he cooperated with us.  And then to have him thank us with his singing was such a delight.

It made me long for heaven and the connection we will be able to have with the animals.  What it will be like to swim with the dolphins, pet and lay with the big lion, ride a horse without a saddle or reins, and even be able to have any bird sit on your finger or shoulder and sing and sing and sing.

Analogy

The trapped bird reminded me of how some of us feel trapped.  It doesn’t matter what it is.  It could be a debt hanging over your head, maybe you are trapped in yourself and can’t seem to reach out to others, but whatever, whenever, or where ever you feel trapped there is a solution.  Your situation may not change immediately but how you feel about it can.

Many times we are in the situations we are because of our own choices.  We may be in a bad marriage because we did not seek or even listen to the Lord or Godly counsel.  It also could be that we married before we gave our heart to the Lord and our spouse did not give their heart to God as we did.  Most of the time debt comes from our own bad choices and we have trapped ourselves in the “stove” of debt.  But even in our bad choices, there is a Helper.

When that bird went down the chimney she didn’t just happen to stumble in.  It has a special spark arrestor on the chimney so the bird would have had to actually go into it to fall down the chimney.  There are many times that we do the same thing.  We are walking along in life and we see a job, person, things that we feel we need or want and we don’t investigate thoroughly before we make the choice to dive in headfirst.  And then afterward, too late, we realize it was a big mistake, just like the bird realized too late.

There are other times that we are walking along and it is not something really obvious and we fall in.  But the solution for both is still the same.

I like to call it S U R R E N D E R

 

  • Start your day with God
  • Utter words in prayer
  • Read your Bible
  • Recite verses to memory
  • Encourage others
  • No criticizing words
  • Direct praise to God
  • End your day with God
  • Rest in God’s promises

 

The only way we can have success in our lives is to Start our day with God in Uttering words in prayer, Reading His Word, and Reciting His Word to memory.  When we have His Word in our hearts He can draw it to our memories in the day when we need encouragement or help with any temptation or decision.  Encouraging others always helps to get our minds off of ourselves.  And when we are speaking No words of criticism about people around us or even about ourselves, it draws us closer to God and away from that depressing feeling of being trapped.  It doesn’t help the other person or us when we criticize.  We should be Directing our praise to God each day for what He has done for us.  It may take some time for us to become grateful because we have been so negative but it can happen and what joy it brings.  Make sure to End your day with God.  Recite a verse you are memorizing and pray.  And then Rest in His promises.  If you do these things you will be able to sing a song of praise to God for His help of drawing you out of the “stove” (pit) of sin.

Excited

What I am most excited about is to be totally rescued from the “stove”.  Soon Jesus is coming to take us home, to take us out of this “stove” (world) of sin and sorrow.  When He comes and takes us to heaven that will be the ultimate joy.

I can just imagine myself singing as I ascend up to meet Him in the air, “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.  Wherefore comfort one another with these words” 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18.

And then when I am actually in the city the joy will be so overwhelming I will burst out with singing praises to the One that has made it possible for me to be there.  I will sing my gratitude of praise to Jesus, “…. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing” Revelation 5:12.   What a glorious day that will be.  And I don’t know about you but I don’t want the things of this world to destroy that moment.  I want to surrender all my life to Jesus.

Dear Father,

“Take my life, and let it be

Consecrated, Lord, to Thee;

Take my hands, and let them move

At the impulse of Thy love;

At the impulse of Thy love;

 

Take my feet, and let them be

Swift and beautiful for Thee.

Take my voice, and let me sing

Always, only, for my King;

Always, only, for my King;

 

Take my lips, and let them be

Filled with messages from Thee.

Take my silver and my gold:

Not a mite would I withhold;

Not a mite would I withhold.

 

Take my will, and make it Thine,

It shall be no longer mine;

Take my heart, it is Thine own,

It shall be Thy royal throne.

It shall be Thy royal throne.

 

Take my love, my Lord, I pour

At Thy feet its treasure store;

Take myself, and I will be,

Ever, only, all for Thee.

Ever, only, all for Thee.”

— Frances Ridley Havergal

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Surrender all to Jesus today.  He will help make your path straight and bring you joy and peace no matter what situation you face.

Love you all.

Do you have a nature story you can tell?  I love to hear nature stories.  Share what you learned from your experience.

 

Posted on

“Are You Aligned Or Do You Need To Adjust?”

Have you ever planned your day?  You have everything lined up exactly in a way that should make everything go smoothly.  But then things start happening and your day is falling apart.  It can be so frustrating.  It may be so disastrous that you don’t even want to start another day.

I work at a print shop and run the digital.  We often have a two-sided card, flyer, postcard, etc. to print.  Most of the paper I run is too heavy to duplex.  Besides, it takes longer to print when you duplex.  So I run one side at a time.  Now when you are setting up for printing it is very important that you have a gutter and crop marks.  This makes it a lot easier for the guys that have to cut things out.  We may be printing a sheet of business cards 20 up on a sheet and they need to have the marks to know where to cut.

Once I am done printing the first side I take the paper and replace it back in the drawer for printing the second side.  You start by printing one so you can check to make sure you put the paper incorrectly.  You don’t want the picture on the second side to be upside down.  On the most part I know, now, how to put the paper in so it is rarely put in the wrong.  There are exceptions when designs are out of the ordinary.

The other thing that I am looking for is to see if my gutter and crop marks are aligned.  I take a utility knife and cut the crop mark on the front and look at the back and see if it came through at the crop mark on the back.  If not there is a problem.  If I sent it back for the guys to cut without it being aligned right there would be things cut off the back side that should not be cut off.  It may cut off words, pictures, logos, etc and it would not be acceptable to the client.

If my crop marks are not aligned I have to go onto my computer and make some adjustments until they are perfectly aligned.

It made me start to think about our spiritual lives.  We need to be aligned with God.  I picture myself on one side of the picture and Jesus and His Word on the other side.  The gutter and crop marks need to be aligned.  If they are not then I need to do some adjusting in my life.  When I am adjusting the alignment in the print shop sometimes it takes a couple or more times to get it just right.  I think in our spiritual walk it is the same way.  We do some adjusting in our lives thinking that we are aligned but then we realize we need even more adjusting.  In our walk with God, we will be always adjusting as we learn more and more.

In the print shop if I were to send something back to the cutters to cut without those gutters and crop marks it can be disastrous.  But a lot of times they can cut things out if they realize to start with that they are not aligned.  It takes painstaking time and a lot of times the objects may end up a little smaller than planned.  In our spiritual lives if we don’t stay aligned with God He works to reach our hearts with means that may not be so pleasant.  There will be a cutting away process that is painful.  And we may come out a little “smaller” than if we would have chosen His route to start with.  There will be wounds that He wanted us to be able to avoid.  But often we go on in our stubborn ways and think we know better.

The question is, “how do I get aligned with God?”  It starts with having a relationship with Him.  We can’t get to know someone and build a relationship with him or her without spending time.  We need to spend time with God so that we can get to know Him.  We need to spend time in His Word and in prayer with Him.  Prayer is a two-way conversation.  We often pour our hearts out to God but we forget to be silent and listen.

  • Spend time in His Word with much prayer. Reading God’s Word is the way to get to know Him.  I recently ran across some information that I believe can be helpful to you on how to study your Bible.  This can make it easy and fun.  It is “How to Study the Bible With the 5RS Method”, by Alicia Michelle.
    • Read the verse. This is pretty simple you just read whatever verse you have picked out.  I think starting with the book of Proverbs may be a good place to start.  Pick a chapter and go for it, starting with one verse each day.
    • Rewrite the verse. Then you write it down.
    • Restate the verse. Here you will restate the verse using different words that still convey the same message.  You are just expressing it in a different way that may make it more meaningful to you.  You can do this by taking each of the words and finding synonyms.
    • Relate the verse. Take a moment and really think about what this verse is about and how it can apply to your life.  What are you learning in this verse that you want to put in action?
    • Respond to the verse. This area involves prayer.  Responding to the verse through prayer.  Asking God’s help with what action you want to make in changing your life.

These are some easy things we can do that can help us get aligned with God.  As we learn and follow what the Lord teaches us we will grow in Him.

Dear Father,

As we study Your Word send Your Spirit to enlighten our hearts.  Convict us on what changes we need to make so that we can be aligned with You.  Thank You for Your love and forgiveness.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Get into the Word today.  Make it a daily habit.  You will draw closer to Him and be aligned with Him as You study the light and take heed to the light.

Love you all.

What is your method of connecting with God and becoming more aligned to Him?