Mom2Mom

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Not going to be any dust in Heaven …


Dust … dust and MORE DUST.  It’s that time of year when there is dust, pollen dust and more dust… EVERYWHERE!   Seconds after you dust, there’s DUST!  Makes you sneeze, makes your head hurt, makes your eyes water.  Itty, bitty, tiny particles that are too small to do anything on their own, but let them get together and you’re dust. 

The good news is there is not going to be any dust in Heaven.  There will not be any housecleaning, spring cleaning … sinus headaches or allergy attacks.

Dust.  Such a nuisance.  But, we ARE dust.  Dust and water on a skeleton frame. (Of course, sometimes we wish there was a little less dust and water on our particular frame).   Wonder if God thinks of us as a nuisance sometimes?

He made us from nothing.   From “nuisance” to man.  (And sometimes to “nuisance” again?)  Amazing how God looked down on the earth, took the dust and breathed life into man.

Genesis 2:7
“Then the LORD God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.”

He made us valuable in His sight from dust.  These bodies we value so much … we decorate with clothing and jewelry.  We tan them, exercise them and yet is that what part of us is valuable?  The things we put on ourselves?  The things we collect?

Matthew 6:19  “Don’t collect for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.”

Matthew 6:20  “But collect for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal.”

I wonder what would happen if we “dusted off” our spiritual “body” … exercised it, exposed it to the Son, clothed it in righteousness, purity and honor?

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How did we get there from here?


Webster’s Definition of TOLERANCE

1: capacity to endure pain or hardship :endurance, fortitude, stamina
2a: sympathy or indulgence for beliefs or practices differing from or conflicting with one’s own b: the act of allowing something :toleration
3: the allowable deviation from a standard; especially: the range of variation permitted in maintaining a specified dimension in machining a piece
4a (1): the capacity of the body to endure or become less responsive to a substance (as a drug) or a physiological insult especially with repeated use or exposure
As parents, grandparents; neighbors, employees; voters, bystanders … we have taken tolerance as an excuse to become apathetic.   We are tired, we do not want conflict, we just want to live and let live.  We do not want to be bothered.  We all have a reason for allowing things to just be.  With each year we just throw up our hands, turn away, give up and sit.  Hoping it all will go away, or “IT” will get better on it’s own.  “IT” can be many things in our lives.  People, situations, habits = “IT”.  Our attitude towards “IT” did not happen over night.  With each generation of neglect, apathy, or however you want to label the response to “IT”, we strengthen “IT” until it is insurmountable to overcome and take back control.  We do not like labels, society does not tolerate labels.  So we do not call “IT” by what it is.  The truth is, “IT” was, and always will be SIN.  When we first tolerate SIN and turn away, we strengthen SIN and begin to be tolerant.  Slowly we quit naming it SIN and create “IT”.  Unnamed and harmless.
I hope my ramblings are not confusing.  To best sum up my thoughts I offer this quote:

“One of the penalties of sin is our acceptance of it. It is not only God who punishes for sin, but sin establishes itself in the sinner and takes its toll. No struggling or praying will enable you to stop doing certain things, and the penalty of sin is that you gradually get used to it, until you finally come to the place where you no longer even realize that it is sin. No power, except the power that comes from being filled with the Holy Spirit, can change or prevent the inherent consequences of sin. ‘If we walk in the light as He is in the light. . .’ (1 John 1:7). For many of us, walking in the light means walking according to the standard we have set up for another person.” ~ Oswald Chambers

I think Chambers sums it all up nicely.  So what do we do?  We acknowledge we turned away.  We stop denying and return to the truth.  As Chambers says, only the Holy Spirit can do this work in our lives.  Yes, we pray but we pray specifically for the Holy Spirit to renew us, to open our hearts to the Word we read each day.  We ask for discernment and we ask:

Psalm 51:10 (ESV) “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”

Philippians 4:8 (NASB)  “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”

At the risk of repeating myself, JUST DO IT (previous blog).  Stop and call “IT” by the right name, SIN.  Tolerance by Bible standards = love thy neighbor as they self.  You can love someone and not love what they do.  We should not let anything that the Bible calls SIN become “IT” simply because we have become desensitized by the world and we do not want to deal with “IT”.

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“Walks like a duck, swims like a duck …” (a photo essay)


must be a duck … right?  What kind of  “duck” are you?

Camouflage duck…

 

Pretending to be a duck

Backsliding duck

Popular but hard to understand duck

 

Robot duck

 

Just along for the ride duck

 

Duck in hiding

Fanatical duck

Mere reflection of your old self duck

Bound by circumstances duck

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come.” 

2 Corinthians 5:17 (HCSB)

 

What kind of Christian are you?  Are you a new creation, or another version of the old you?  Who do you reflect?

RBGREENDESIGNS.COM 2021

 

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Not Worth a Dime


Not Worth A Dime

Listening to the local Moody Radio broadcast this week during their fundraising time, I heard something that just made me go “WOW, never thought of it like that”.  Of course they are totally dependent on donations to run their public broadcasting ministry, but still … wow.  One of them said, “Jesus is not worth a dime to many people.”

Not worth a dime.  We use that phrase in reference to slackers or a product that does not measure up.  There is another phrase as well, “not worth a plug nickel”, which of course refers to a “slug” or fake coin the size of a nickel.  And still another Southernism, “not worth the powder and lead to blow it/him up.”    We generally use all three phrases for worthlessness.  When I heard them say, “Jesus is not worth a dime”, I turned up the volume to get the context.

Are you in effect saying to Jesus He is worthless with your giving of yourself, money, time and talents?

One thin dime, 10 cents, $0.10 out of every dollar.  Basically, they were saying if you had a dollar you would not give Jesus a dime of it … not worth a dime.  People hoard their money, their time and their talents.   Sometimes I wonder what we are saving up for … tomorrow is not ours, not even the rest of the day.

For someone who grew up with tithing, I get it.  I understand keeping 90% and giving back 10% of your money, time and talent.  But, when you put it like that … when you realize that you basically are saying to Jesus, “you are not worth a dime” that really just overwhelms me.  We do the same thing with our time and talent … 1 minute, 2 minutes (or NONE) spent in His word?  Time spent in His house worshiping?  Time given to help out others and the church?  How much time did you spend on FB, online shopping … but, you never have the time for Him?

I do believe tithing of your monies, time and talent  is a generational thing.  And although I do not have any studies to prove it, I would be more than willing to believe that givers beget givers.  We learn from our parents and we pass on to our children our habits, practices, theologies.  I think we really need to put more meat into our “passing on” and make sure we teach WHY and WHO we tithe our monies, time and talent.  I went over how to teach your children about tithe in an earlier post,  MONEY, MONEY, MONEY.  It SHOULD NOT BE A  ritual to practice or a good habit.  There is a reason for tithing and giving of offerings (what we give above 10%).   I remember my Mom and Dad always saying, “you cannot out-give God”.

Malachi 3:10(ESV) “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.”

Tithe was the first check Mom wrote.  They were involved in so many ministries at the church and in the community.   I think we practically lived at the church.  The joke was we were there every time the doors opened.  It was understood that not giving back to God was treating Him shamefully.   There are so many great stories of men and women who “get it”.    I grew up hearing about such men and women of God.  I think the most memorable one was R. G. LeTourneau.   He gave 90 percent of his income to the Lord. He said,  “I shovel out the money, and God shovels it back to me – but God has a bigger shovel.” (He invented earth-moving equipment).

The Bible says:

Malachi 3:8 “Should people cheat God? Yet you have cheated Me! “But you ask, ‘What do You mean? When did we ever cheat You?’ “You have cheated Me of the tithes and offerings due to Me.”

You?  Your time? Money? Talents?  Where are you cheating God?  What are you passing on to your children?

Is He worth One Thin Dime? Ten minutes of your hour?

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Fresh Lemonade?


When you are squeezed, what comes out?

There is More to Lemonade Than Just Lemons

Pressure … comes from all sides.  Home, work, friends, family … pressure.  Good things happen and bad things happen.  Sometimes the bad outweighs the good.   Why do some people have it easy  while others seem to never catch a break? Every time you pick up a paper, turn on your computer or answer the phone you seem to hear nothing but heartache.  After a while you could really get depressed.

The bumper sticker reads, “Life, it happens”.  Someone you love is going to suffer an unjust circumstance.  Something is going to happen that is just not fair.  It happens to your children, your husband … a friend.   That someone could be you.  It may be something small, but like a splinter in the finger it hurts.  It could be something huge that threatens to take you under.  Pressure, it comes from all sides.  Why?  

The pressure of the world is sin.  People get angry over the consequences of sin, especially when they suffer because someone else sinned.  Who is to blame?   People sin because they are sinners, they are not sinners because of sin. People choose to sin.  Bad choices have consequences … SIN has consequences.  We all make bad choices, we all choose to sin.  We are all sinners.

               Romans 3:10 (NLT) “As the Scriptures say,    “No one is righteous — not even one. “

Squeeze a sinner = SIN  ?  

So what do you do? 

  • Cry
  • Hide
  • Throw in the towel
  • Run away
  • Give up
  • All of the above

Yes it is a cliché, “Life hands you lemons, make lemonade” or, “squeeze some carbon, get a diamond.”  Tired of hearing that right?  Today you, or someone you know, will be pressured by life.  The first impulse (because you are a sinner and sinners sin) is ????   You are on the spot and must make a decision not to sin and/or help someone else not to sin.  Worry is a sin.  Blaming God is a sin.  He did not create sin or sin’s consequences, but for the time being He is allowing the devil to run the world (because man CHOSE sin).    Christ died for those sins and that sinful nature.  Claim that victory and do not believe the devil’s lies.  Just remember,  God is in control, He is still on the throne, He loves you and He cares for you.  TRUST Him.  Turn it over to Him.

  • PRAY first
  • Read His word
  • Act on His leading
  • Fellowship/talk with other Christians
  • ENCOURAGE other Christians

Ask God for wisdom today and TRUST Him for the rest.  Trust = FAITH.  A living faith accomplishes in our life what God wants us to have.   A living faith walks on water.  Matthew 14: 22-32