Plans...

Plans...there are plenty today.God has always had a plan."..to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future,"(Jer.29:11) We can follow His plan, or "continue with our own plan, each of us following the stubborness of his evil heart."(Jer.18:12) Our plans end in eternal death without Him. The fea...r of the Lord leads to life.(Pro.19:23)...eternal life....even after the last heartbeat...Hallelujah

grief...I've tasted it, but have never had to drink the cup that has been to the lips of so many dear friends. Again today, a dear friend drinks. I have no help...nothing to offer...no way to take it away....I read again Job's story.."If only my anguish could be weighed and all my misery be placed on the scales...it would surely outweigh the sand of the seas.."(Job 6:2) I can not imagine the heaviness of her sorrow. I can only offer myself to God and ask Him to use me in some small way to bring His comfort. He is the only answer.

"In my distress I called to the Lord. I cried to my God for help From His temple He heard my voice. My cry came before Him, into His ears. (Ps.18:6)

now....Time is not new...but it is important. Now is all we have. Live fully in it. Not in the past. Not waiting for that perfect time yet to come. Now. "Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." (Ps. 90:12) Oh Lord, help us to be wise in our 'now'.


new...we're about to enter a new year. But is anything really new? Solomon says no.(Ecc.1:9) Time is not new. Measuring it is not new. Filling it is not new...no matter what you fill it with. Measured time...hours, days, months, and yes...years...is not new. But eternity will never be old.....Things that have eternal worth are the only things that matter. The only way this coming year will be different from the last will be determined by our relationship with The Creator. Not stuff. Not image or appearance. Not information and knowledge.

"Fear God and keep His commandments..."(Ecc.12:13 )Solomon should know, He tried it all...and found success in his efforts but found no fulfillment from the success...no value.

Make it your business to know His will for your days and years. Seek Him with an undivided heart, and He will be found. (1 Chron. 28:9)...

Translations...

Translations… There are dozens of different ones….yet some people think that the King James is the only reliable one…that it might even be the one Jesus used…

(That was a joke.) The only scripture Jesus used was what we call the Old Testament, and it was written in Hebrew….and on scrolls.

I love the King James. I don’t use it anymore.

I’m not good at memorizing and quoting, but what little I can quote verbatim is from the King James…it was what we used when I was a child. However, a lot of what I read and heard might as well have been Hebrew. I have never spoken “The King’s English”…and I didn’t understand a lot of what King James’s translated Bible said.

Sometimes, what might otherwise be very familiar words, is very profound said differently. Same message, same content, same application…different words…and POW!! You get this big A-HA!!

Here was mine this morning..

“…I tried keeping rules and working my head off the please God, and it didn’t work. So I quit being a ‘law man’ so that I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with Him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you….or have your good opinion…amd I am not longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living…is not ‘mine’…but it is lived by faith in the son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me. I am not going to go back on that. Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.”

Wow….

(That is in Galatians 2 for you KJV folks that might want to check.)

Dread...

Dread…. Apprehension of evil or danger. Uneasiness or alarm excited because of expected pain, loss, or other evil…

I dread today. I am overbooked. There will be no time for fun conversation, no time for breaks. Maybe no lunch or even potty breaks. Yep…I dread it. But I’m sure thankful for my job and for my clientele. Very thankful.

‘What have I to dread, what have I to fear, leaning on the everlasting Arm’

It took me several minutes to recall that line, it is a very old hymn. I am reminded that on difficult days, it is most important to be leaning on that Arm and not leaning on myself. Today will be full, but ‘If the Lord delights in my way, He makes my steps firm’
(Ps. 37:23 personalized by me)

There are lots of things on my mind that I dread with all the changes looming in our lives. I am not afraid. I do trust Him. Dread is different from fear, it is not sudden but it is more continued. So this morning, I am admonished to put that dread also into His Arms and trust.

And I am told that if I’m not careful with this matter, I may become ‘a dread to my friends- those who see me on the streets may flee from me.’ (Ps. 31:11 personalized by me) Even the best of friends can become tired of the voicing of my dread!!

Boxes...

Boxes… They come in many varieties. I have some plain cardboard. I have others of plastic. I have some pretty wooden ones, others that have pictures on them…

They’re all boxes though. The purpose it to be a container.

I have one in my vehicle that I bought just because it was so pretty. Haven’t decided what to do with it yet…so it’s still in the backseat. It came in very handy yesterday….

I took our oldest grand-daughter to purchase a Bible to commemorate her baptism a couple weeks ago. She’s distraught about the upcoming move and was asking a lot of questions. The questions took a turn in the direction of God, heaven, and life after death…you know, all those questions you can’t really find a pat answer for…

Where is heaven? I’d rather live here…
Will we be able to walk around and talk? I want to be with you…
Will we know each other? I don‘t want to be by myself…
Is God nice? He sounds mean on that video at your house…

The questions kept coming and got even harder. I was forced to say that I just didn’t know, but I knew that it would be perfect. Then I remembered that pretty box in the backseat…

Think of it like this…every single thing that is a reality to me, or even to the most brilliant and knowledgeable person to ever live…all that is reality, is in that box. Every person. Every thing. Every star in the universe. Everything that exists that we can possibly have knowledge about now or in the future, is in that box.

In that box is all we can know….and we are confined to it.

God is not confined to that box. He MADE the box and everything in it. Unlike us, He can be in the box WITH us, and also be outside the box. He is omnipresent. We are not. We are finite. He is infinite.

The only things we can understand have to be the things inside the box. To help us understand any concept that is NOT in the box, God uses something IN the box to help us….word pictures. “Streets of gold” “Whiter than snow” “The Lord roars”

How can He communicate to us any other way than thru what we ‘know’…thru what is in fact a reality to us? And when He is telling us something that is absolutely NOT yet reality to us, we must choose to believe and trust Him. Faith.

It is a hard concept…the box containing every thing that is real to us.

Then she asked me if the devil was real.

sigh......... :)

Withdrawal...

Withdrawal… the act of taking something away, taking away something which a person is addicted to thereby causing discomfort or pain…

My friend Kathy said she missed me and was having withdrawals….I haven’t written in several days. Certainly she gave me some very exaggerated flattery, but it was nice to hear. It is good to be missed.

Missed… the word can mean fail to be present for something, omit or leave out.

Looks like we will soon miss my oldest son and his family. We will certainly have withdrawals, as they live just next door.

My son has a career move that calls them to New Jersey. We are very proud of his accomplishments, and excited about this opportunity. Yet we will all suffer withdrawals as we adjust.

I’ve never been to New Jersey, but I’m sure it exists. I’m even more sure that God is sovereign in New Jersey just as He is sovereign in Texas. He is big enough and powerful enough to care for my family even there.

I wonder if Abraham’s mother was alive when God instructed him to leave his homeland and go to a far away place? Wonder how his family reacted when he said he was moving?

“Leave your country, your people…and go…I will bless you…So Abraham left..” (Genesis 12: 1,2,4)

I’ve prayed often for my children. This was not what I had in mind.

But God has proven Himself faithful to me. As doors swing wide open in New Jersey, and doors here remain closed, I trust my God.

“God’s love is ever and always eternally present to all who fear Him, making everything right for them and their children as they follow His covenant ways and remember to do whatever He said.” (Ps. 103:17,18 The Message)

Now I continue to pray…that God is now preparing the way before them, preparing the Body of Christ to enfold them as they find the church that will meet their spiritual needs, that He will guide them to the home He has for them there, bless them with friendships, and that this job will indeed be a blessing in every way. I ask that He is so close they will feel His Breath, every step, every moment….and give us all His peace.

School...

School… Almost time to start….then again, is it ever really over?

We have building especially built for schooling. We have a calendar where the first and last official day are set, with special days in between set aside.

But schooling should never really end. We should always be in the process of learning…especially from our mistakes. God will never waste the tiniest bit of pain, IF we go to Him with it honestly, admit our failures and mistakes, and allow Him to use it. He can and WILL bring blessing out of every difficulty, if we only allow and accept.

“Show me how you work, God. School me in Your ways. Take me by the hand, lead me down the path of truth…” (Ps. 25:4,5a The Message)

The lesson to learn though, is that there is indeed truth…A path of truth….NOT an eight-lane highway with a mixmaster going in all directions. No…it’s a single path. And guess what? God marked the path.

“We don’t have to rely on the world’s guesses and opinions. We didn’t learn this by reading books or going to school. We learned it from God, who taught us person-to-person through Jesus, and we are passing it on to you in the same firsthand, personal way.” (1 Cor. 2:13 The Message)

Those are the words of the apostle Paul. If he didn’t rely on guesses and opinions, how can I ? No…the Truth came in the Person of Jesus Christ, and it will never change. No matter what they teach in any school. He “didn’t receive it through the traditions, and he wasn’t taught it in some school…He got it straight from God…” (Gal. 1:12 The Message)

So can I. Simply by opening scripture, and relying on the promises and power of the Holy Spirit “Whom the Father will send in Jesus Name” (John 14:26)… He will open them up to me. Don’t know how? “ God..delights in genuine prayers.” (Pro. 15:8) Ask HIM!!

Sunday school won’t automatically do it. Neither will ‘church services’. Both will be empty and lifeless without the Spirit breathing His Life into us.

“It’s a school of hard knocks for those who leave God’s path, a dead-end street for those who hate God’s rules.” (Pro. 15:10 The Message)

If you don’t like the rules, you just don’t understand the ‘why’ behind the rule. I promise, even when we don’t understand, there is always a reason behind what God says, and it’s always to our advantage. He is ALWAYS right. And He ALWAYS wants the best for us.

So…is school out? Think you’re smart enough? Have you decided to stop learning? Have you refused to learn from where you have been and what you have experienced?

Or have you decided you’re just not smart enough to learn anything else? Is it too hard or too much trouble? (…maybe a bit lazy?)

Please get this….really, really get this….

“Listen to good advice if you want to live well….An undisciplined, self-willed life is puny; an obedient, God-willed life is spacious. Fear of God is a school in skilled living…first you learn humility, then you experience glory.” (Pro. 15:31-33 The Message)

It may seem like an awful choice, the enemy will do his best to make you believe that….but following God is the only way to truly live. If you haven’t experienced it, you have no idea what you are missing.

Changes...

Changes… Looks like some big ones are headed our way. We thought it was a great name for a hair salon. I have said dozens of times, ‘Change is good !’.

Now, changes in my life….that’s another matter! We tend to cling to the familiar around here, do the same things over and over, go to the same places, eat the same thing… There is security in the familiar.

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven..”(Ecc.3:1)

Perhaps it’s the birthday coming up, “There is a time to be born, and a time to die.” (v.2a) I’m counting them off pretty fast these days.

Perhaps it’s that life hasn’t unfolded as I expected. My children have full successful lives…just not what I expected. “There is a time to plant, and a time to uproot…there is a time to embrace, and a time to refrain…”(v. 2b, 5b)

Whatever it is, the changes that may come are challenging. But “I know that everything God does will endure forever. Nothing can be added to it, and nothing taken from it..”(v. 14)

I have influenced decisions in the past, and regretted it. (…..there’s that time of refraining I was not obedient in.….) My only influence should be before the throne of God in prayer for His perfect will to be done.

My roles have changed several times…and will change again. Who will I be next? Where will this path wind up? What lies in my future, and the future of my family? I do not know. I ‘ cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end…’ (v.11b)

But I know The One Who does know. “He has made everything beautiful in its time.”(v.11a) And ‘ I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ (Rom. 8:38,39)

That includes all the way between Texas and New Jersey….