by

Rooted


The other day I wrote down this thought on my Mom2Mom Christian Parenting FB page:

“With God all variables are just possibilities in the scenario.” ~ Renee’ …. I am going to continue to think on this thought He has given me …. I think there’s a blog entry in there 😀

It is true.  All the variables in our lives are possibilities in God’s hands … to mold us and shape us into His perfect plan for us.  We have a habit of messing things up.  We try to “plant” ourselves where and how we think we should be at any given time.   We make our lives comfortable and God has to make us uncomfortable to get us back where we need to be.

Life has a way of redirecting the “streams” that feed us.  Sometimes we end up in a “desert” place.  Circumstances can make it seem that the “water” has redirected out of reach, or gone underground too deep to reach.  That is when and where we find out how we are rooted.

The Redwood trees are the grandest trees, towering above all others.  Yet their root system is shallow and should not support the mighty trees. The secret to their strength is that they tie in with their fellow Redwood trees and are linked together in an underground system.  They are strong from the little seedling to the oldest tree in the forest.  They share their roots, their nourishment.  The ones furthermost from the streams and lakes are nourished through shared roots by the ones near water.

As Christians, we connect with our family and fellow Christians through churches and prayer groups.  We support and nourish each other.  We are never alone.  We intercede in prayer for each other.  We encourage and lift each other up even if the circumstances we are going through have left us feeling like we are way out in the desert.  God uses the variables in our lives as possibilities to make us strong if we allow Him to use them.  He will bring  fellow Christians along side us to aid in our trials as well as in our growth.

Tanya Tucker sang a song many years ago … “There’s a tree in the backyard that never has been broken by the wind. And the reason it’s still standing is it was strong enough to bend.”  Sometimes storms come and threaten to destroy us.  Our “roots” are strongly anchored, but the winds are threatening to crack and break our limbs and level us to the ground, leaving us useless … just roots with no visible life.   During these storms we need to be bendable.  Rooted, yet strong enough to bend.  Life kicks up some mighty strong winds.  Are we willing to bend as He allows the winds to blow?  Or do we stiffin’ up and fight back, as though we can change the storms of life.  Can you thank Him for the storm … the  rain and wind that ultimately makes you strong?  Do you keep your roots attached during bad weather to your underground network, allowing others to be blessed by interceding on your behalf with Him? Or do you give up and try to go it on your own?

Driving around you pass millions of trees you do not notice, but then there’s that tree you pass that has “character”.  It may be a little bent, or show signs of storm damage, yet it is strong and beautiful, producing fruit or flowers even though it is scarred by life’s storms.  You may even see its roots here and there showing it’s strength in its surroundings.  While other trees will be cut down without opposition,  THAT TREE … it will be considered.  It will be noticed and preserved,  maybe even singled out as a center point for a park.  It has survived, it has character, it is strong.

Today there are all kinds of variables facing you, many harsh.  Will you thank Him, remembering that “all things work together for good”?  Are you going to try to handle it all on your own?  Will you reach out to family, even your children … to fellow Christians and secure your “roots”?  Will you allow the variables to be the possibilities in His hands?

James 1:3 “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials..”

Romans 8:28 “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

by

It’s their decision.


Recently I have had traffic to my blog from “past Christians, now atheists”.  That boggles my mind.  How do you have the truth, doubt it and then walk away.  It stands to reason, they never understood the truth?  They were more about self?

How do they turn and walk away?

Have you ever thought about what it was like when satan* decided to leave Heaven?  He made a conscious choice to leave all he knew about God and Heaven.  First, he had the free will to make the choice.  Second, God did not stop him.  Third, he stuck with it and never went back.  God was not a puppet master.  He did not pull the strings and force satan* to walk His walk.  He ALLOWED it all to happen.

So these  “former Christians turned atheists” came across my blog and they want me to understand and help me to leave my faith.  They have proved to themselves they were raised wrong, and that all they believed is a myth.  They want to “UNconvert the converted … UNsave the saved”.  Wow.

So how could they think that way?  Well, how could satan*?  That is pretty heavy thinking on any scale.  That you could KNOW God, BEEN in Heaven and just walk away, basically denying God’s love and power.   So satan* thought to take it all, succeed on his own, and did his own thing.  Daily, here on earth, people do the same thing without a second thought.

A young man I know is going through a very tough time.  His fiance  CHOSE to leave him, leave the church, leave the walk they had professed.  The young man is understandably hurt and confused.   He thought the person he loved was a Christian walking the walk she talked.  Now it all seems to have been a lie.   This is not a new phenom, I have seen it throughout the years; people pretending to be a certain way in order to “get what they want”.   This young woman got the ‘coveted ring’, only to decide it was not enough and walked away.  He is very fortunate, although he will not realize this for sometime.

(Have you ever considered how God felt when His creation walked out of Heaven willingly?)

I have friends who have children they raised to love the Lord who simply chose to walk away.  I know of couples where one chose to leave their vows before God, the church life they shared, the children they had.  All of these made a choice and must live with the consequences.  Sadly, they leave a path of grief in their wake.

Can you imagine how God grieved over satan*?   Look at the wake of grief he brought on this earth by his choice.  Was God to blame because He did not stop satan*?  Why did He not stop Eve?  It had to grieve Him.  Was it God’s fault because He did not stop satan* in his temptation of Eve? No.  It was satan* who made the choice.  It was Eve and Adam who made choices.  It was their decision, just as your decisions are yours.  God is NOT a puppet master.

The day comes when we as parents allow our children to make their own decisions.  The day comes when as adults they are out of your control and you are not to blame for their choices.  You can be a great parent but, one day they will make their own decisions.  God is a perfect Heavenly Father.  But, daily we make choices that hurts and grieves Him because we can.  We have free will.

For those that have been hurt by a loved one who walks away … a child, a friend, a spouse …. you cannot and should not blame yourself.  Sometimes you can do all the right things and the person will still make the wrong choice.

Each day in our lives we come to the point where we make a conscious choice…. FOR or AGAINST God.  Free will.

Not so free … it cost a lot.  Jesus died on the cross for what satan’s* free will cost.  Many broken hearts and lives have paid a heavy price for someone else to have free will.

Today will you make a conscience choice for Him?   Will you celebrate the resurrection in earnest?   When you take the Lord’s Supper  will you  truly “do this in remembrance of Him”.  Never take it lightly, never take Him lightly.    Remember the cross … Remember the cost.

*satan – I know people capitalize the “S” but, I don’t.  I refuse to give him any status of importance.  He’s a snake, so satan, devil, etc. are lower case, as he is one.

by

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?

by

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”.

by

Myths, Urban Legends, Mom Said …


Working in a Christian Bookstore you hear so many interesting “truths”.  People come in wanting to find a plaque, or a bookmark, or maybe a book containing certain sayings or facts.  I often want to say, “well, if it is in the Bible, why not find it there?”.  The truth is, most do not know what is really in the Bible.  It is just something they heard someone tell them and that made it so.

This past week a woman came in and wanted a plaque that said, “when God closes a door, He opens a window.”  She was shocked we did not carry someone like that.  Of course you know me, I jumped right in with my “take” on the subject of God and His using only the FRONT DOOR (previous blog).  It is surprising how many times we say we only want to get to know Him better.  We want to know His will.  Yet, somehow, we never look to the obvious source for that information.

I have a grandson named Noah and working in a Christian bookstore, we have plenty of books and items with Noah depicted.  Through the ages people have taken what God’s word says  about Noah and the animals in the ark, and changed it to say only two of every animal entered the ark (2×2).  But, look at what God’s word really says:

Genesis 7:2-3 (NASB) “2 You shall take with you of every clean animal by sevens, a male and his female; and of the animals that are not clean two, a male and his female;    3 also of the birds of the sky,by sevens, male and female, to keep offspring alive on the face of all the earth.”

That is FOURTEEN, not two!

Growing up I remember that when there was a freak storm someone would say it was getting close to the end times because that is when the seasons would swap.  That myth came from Padre Pio, a Roman Catholic priest who was quoted as saying,  “You will know when that time is approaching because the seasons will change so the only way you will know the seasons is by the leaves on the trees.”  The Bible actually says the exact opposite in God’s promise to Noah saying He would never destroy the earth by flood again.

Genesis 8:22 “While the earth remains, seed-time and harvest, And cold and heat, And summer and winter, And day and night Shall not cease.”

Now you have all heard, “cleanliness is next to Godliness” right?  Not in there – you will not find it in the Bible.   How about, “God helps those who help themselves?”  Not in the Bible.  How many tribes were there?  13, not 12.  People say 12 because the Levites were not given land, but the tribes were made up of Jacob’s 11 sons and Joseph’s 2.

How many of you believe Mary rode to Bethlehem on a donkey or other animal?  Luke 2 Three Wise Men? Matthew 2  Or, how about the unicorns mentioned in the Bible?  The actual Hebrew word referred to a two-horned animal, but King James people thought one horn and put in unicorn (nine times in the O.T.).  Contrary to popular myth, they did not “miss the boat” (Ark).  What about the popular Mizpah jewelry symbolizing love and friendship and quoting Genesis 8:49, “The LORD watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another.” ?   Actually, it was a covenant between Jacob and Laban based on their past differences, a warning that God was keeping an eye on their actions.

So my point is that we have a bad habit of listening to what others say, preach, teach, and take it as “gospel” when in actuality it is not IN THE GOSPEL.   As Christians  you need to know what the Bible actually says, teach and walk what it says, and not just keep passing on misinformation.  Make a point of knowing what you are talking about and not just being a puppet or minor bird , repeating what others say.  Make sure your kids are raised with what the Bible actually says.   I tell others to study APOLOGETICS – be prepared to give the reasons for what you believe.   In other words, know what you believe and why with NO APOLOGIES.   Make sure God’s word really said it, before you repeat it.