God

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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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Spittin’ Image


As I show my grandchildren and children’s pictures, different ones comment on whom they “see” in a child’s image.  One of my granddaughter’s bears strong resemblance of my father.  Another granddaughter looks just like her dad.  My two girls look like their dad (or me depending on who you ask).   No matter what they do to themselves, they still bear the image of their ancestry.  That is their physical inheritance. It is in their genes.

spittin' Image

Image is everything in the world’s eyes.  Clothes, hairstyles, types of cars, houses … “make the man”.  But, when you take all that away you are left with just a human being.  What they are really made of is all that matters then.

A young man I know is contemplating a tattoo, putting a name of God on his arm.  I asked Him why and he said, “to remind me of who God is to me.  It won’t show.  But, I’ll know it’s there and when I see it I will remember what He has done for me.”  I thought about that for a while.  The young man is not even the ‘tattoo’ type.  But, we are in a culture where that is the way things are expressed.  But, if it is not seen, then what is the point?  Image.  Take away all the “decorations”, what is left.  The person …. then what do you see?

2 Corinthians 5:17 (HCSB)                                                                                                                                                                                                                   “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come.”

Galatians 2:20 (HCSB)
“and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

When a child is born, their image is defined by their genes.  You can tattoo yourself, dye your  hair, sunburn (tan) the skin, use contacts to change the eye color  … but, the image remains the same if you remove all the “world”.

Genesis 1:27 (NASB)                                                                                                                                                                                                              “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.“

When a baby is born into this world the parents (or whomever takes them to raise) has an intended plan for them, a hope, a purpose.  Sometimes though, the child takes control and goes their own way.  Expressing their personality and style is acceptable in today’s world and explains some of the outrageous “looks” we witness daily.  But, when you remove it all you see what they were intended to be.

God created you in His image … it was His intended plan, for a hope and a purpose.  We do not need to tattoo our body, wear an emblem, sticker our car to remind us of Him, especially if that is all we do.  He created all creation as a reminder of who He is … we only have to look.  We are part of that creation.  People look at us daily.  Is there anything about us that screams “His creation … in the image of God”?

1 Thessalonians 2:12 (ESV)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  “we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.”

Now, “momma” says, go polish that image, the world sees the outside before they see the inside (exercise,  brush your teeth, comb your hair) …. 😀

Strip yourself down to His image, glorify Him today in your talk, your walk … if necessary your dress.  Do people see a rebellious image?  Do you express an image that you do not care for His creation by the way you care for yourself?  Are you taking the best care of  His image?  Are you giving the appearance of slothfulness or a fashion snob? What does your image scream?   Is His image presented in modesty?  Can the world get pass your image to see His?

There is so much to consider when you remember that you are in HIS image.  Need a fashion change?

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Depending ….


February 1 …. everyone should have their W2’s from the previous year.  It is time to look at taxes.  Did you claim enough dependents? Was there enough withholding?  Do you owe?

Dependent.  I looked the word up and it is one of those words with so many meanings, “depending” on what you want to say.  This time of year we are looking at how we claimed dependents.  Dependents are those that lean on us for their needs, so we claim them to reduce our taxes.

Just the 2 of Us

Our children are grown and married so my husband and I only have each other to claim for tax purposes.  “Depending” on how you claimed your “dependents” in the previous year, you now look to this year’s W4 to decide on withholding based on dependents.  Confused?  That is just one way to look at dependency.

Co-dependency, chemical dependency, alcohol dependency, (Starbucks dependency :-D) ; the lists go on and on.  As Christians we can claim one kind of dependency that takes care of all our needs.   This is the dependency we need to pass on to our children.   Christ.   We need Him every hour, every breath.  So many days we hit the ground running without recognizing our need for Him in our life and then at the end of the day when we have made a huge mess of things, it hits us.  We ran around in our own power.  That is like running around on a skate board when you have a fine tuned race car in the garage.  What are you waiting for?  Pull it out and start the engine.

2 Peter 1:3  (HCSB)  “3 His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.”

Christ is all you need.  He is all the power you need.  You need Him every hour and He is there.  You can lean on Him.  You can trust Him.

I see people daily running to books and pastor’s, church groups and help groups bypassing the power of going to Him.  It would be amazing to see what would happen if the first stop on everyone’s day was in His word and in prayer talking with Him.  There is nothing wrong with Bible studies, reading books and seeking pastoral advise.  I write my blog to help others.   We learn from others and it is Biblical.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (ESV) “3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.“

But, for Christians to continually seek help outside of Him is the wrong kind of dependency.   Our problems occur when we only recognize our need for Him because we are in trouble.   The truth is we need Him every hour, not just in hard times.   IF we only run to Him when we are in  trouble, then we have not realized our true need.  Recognizing our need for Him, leaning on Him daily in His word and in prayer, carries us through the trials of life.   Yes, God will use the pastor and church as well as it’s members, to help in time of need.  But, just as we should not expect the schools to help raise our kids, we should not expect the church to meet our needs.  God meets our needs … sometimes using the church.  Unfortunately, some people will never step pass their needs to recognize all they need is Him.

Today we need the Lord.  Where is your dependency?  What or whom are you leaning on?  What gets you through your day?  Your kids, your family, your friends, co-workers …. they need to see your dependency on Him.

So when they meet you today, will they meet Him because you are leaning on Him?