In Other Words Tuesday for October 30, 2012

A Fallen Grape

                 

Quote: The harvest will not self-reap but the harvest will self-destruct if it’s not reaped.  Wayne Corderio

 

For the month of October we have gone from the beginning to the end of planting a crop that God would be proud of. Definitely a crop yielding the fruit the Lord wants us to yield in our Christian walk and talk. We prepared our soil, picked out our seeds, planted them, nourished and pampered our garden and now we get to “reap what we sowed.” Ouch! Do we really have to? Yes, we now come to the point where we finally reap what we’ve sown.

 

I remember when way back I finally woke up to that reality myself. It happened when the harvest of the crop I had planted fifteen years earlier was staring me in the face and I couldn’t believe what I had. The more I thought about it and back-tracked my steps over the years there was no denying it. What I had reaped was exactly what I had sown.

 

We can have our educated guesses on why our crops have failed here and there but when it comes to the actual growth of a crop there is no denying. Like it or not it comes out exactly what we sowed. Problem is at the time of our planting season we don’t think too much about precisely what it is this will yield that I’m doing today. Does the fourteen year-old child think that smoking a cigarette will get them the crop of lung cancer later? No. Is the person enjoying their donut breakfast for the fifth time this week think about the heart attack they will yield years from now due to being overweight? No.

We seem to fall into crop failure mode sometimes I’ll call it. As a young girl I heard the whole scoop about brushing my teeth but I never did it well. Now as an adult I would like to shake my finger at that young girl for the crop her behavior reaped that I now have to deal with. We just don’t get it. The one major “Murphy Law” you could call it that will never change is, “You reap what you sow” yet we refuse to believe it. We like the theory of, “It will never happen to me” or the one where we go to church on Sunday and pray for crop failure from our weeks’ worth of activity. It doesn’t work that way.

 Another thing about harvesting a crop is the fact that it doesn’t make sense to put all that time and effort into it only to miss handle it once it’s grown causing it to ruin. A crop may not be able to self-reap but it can very easily self-destruct if it’s not harvested properly. Like anything we grow it needs to be properly harvested or we could lose all we worked so hard to produce. When my dad raises his hay if he bales it up before its dry the bales will get moldy on the inside. What good does that do him? None!  What he has grown needs to be properly brought in and handled in order to benefit from the labor.

 Our Christian lives are no different. It doesn’t make sense to put all we have into growing the crop God can be proud of only to let it self-destruct out in the fields it was produced in. Our talent or gift for singing, writing, serving others, helping others, speaking, teaching, and so much more simply gone to waste because we don’t handle the harvest from them properly. Picking them and storing them frequently and correctly in order to enjoy the harvest from them.

 If you think about it when it comes to our Christian gifts or crops we aren’t the only ones that will benefit from them. For my dad the hay he grows is strictly for the cattle he raises and for no one else. However, with our spiritual crops they benefit not only us but those around us as well. In Leviticus 19:10 the Israelites were told not to glean their entire harvest because God wanted them to leave the fallen fruit for the poor or stranger who happens to come along.

Truly what a blessing it is to get even the benefit of a fallen grape here and there from someone who is producing as God would want them to. This should be a goal for our own garden to be that person for someone else. Someone producing well enough that even a fallen fruit here and there can be used to help others and glorify God’s kingdom.

It may be a part of our harvest we may never see but with God watching over us we can rest assure it won’t go by unnoticed. A crop self-reaped instead of self-destroyed as we spread to others the benefit of a fallen grape or fruit from the garden of our heart and the fruit basket of our soul.

 **Next week I won't get to participate in Tuesday's writing because I will be at a Cancer Treatment of America clinic having my cancer evaluated. See you the week after that!

© 2012 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing         

 

 

Nourishment Weeding and Growing our Garden

Quote: We need to process our life to find the thorns. We have to give God permission to step in and step in hard to do what needs to be done to get rid of the thorns and prepare our field. The secret of growing fruit is the pruning, the cutting out what doesn’t need to be in order for the fruit to grow. We need to write things down we need to do and then check ourselves frequently. Wayne Corderio

 

So far we have cultivated our land and prepare our soil for planting. Next we went to the local store to purchase the seeds we wanted to plant. Now we are at the place where we have need to nurture what we have planted, weed out what we didn’t sow, and feed and care for the things we want to grow.

 

Delicate as our garden is we need to know too much water will kill our plants just like not enough will also. Plus we need to know how much is too much fertilizer and how much is too little. Being able to tell what your plants look like helps too when it comes to weeding out what doesn’t belong. Ignorance of what our harvest is supposed to look like is no excuse. It was the excuse my dad used once when he pulled a bunch of mom’s flowers from her flower beds claiming they were weeds. It didn’t get him off the hook with mom and it won’t us either when we stand before God.

 

It’s definitely not good enough to just plant the seeds and walk away from the garden only to come back with a plate and fork expecting to get instant, unlabored results.  What we plant has to be cared for no differently than the child we gave birth to or the animal we chose to be in our care. Whether we want to admit it or not there is not a great deal of things that don’t require some kind of labor.

 

Unlabored results in a garden are a weed infested patch of dirt. The same goes with our spiritual lives. If we want it to grow into something that produces good fruit for Jesus we need to be willing to put our “hand to the plow” or back to the shovel, our heart into our efforts whatever phrase you want to use and work! Work? “Mommy! Karen, used a dirty word in her writing! She said the ‘W’ word, work!” Yes, that’s what I said, “work.”

 

What we put into our spiritual garden is exactly what we are going to get out of it. If we allow the things in the world to grow in around us and choke out our relationship with Jesus that’s exactly what we will get. A relationship that has been destroyed by worldly forces we allowed to enter.

 

I wish I could say we could just put out a sign in front of our garden declaring it a weed free zone, no bugs, pest, unproductive plants not allowed. If it was that easy I would go into the business of selling such a sign. If you believe that I have ocean front property in Montana I’d like to sell you.

 

Truth is what we get out of anything depends a lot on what we put into it. If we want a good relationship with our spouse or children or co-workers we need to do our part. Weeding out what doesn’t belong is vital and again we need to know in our hearts what it is that doesn’t belong in our garden. Anger, fear, disobedience, impatience, and more are things that don’t belong in our spiritual garden. We need to recognize these things for what they are and know exactly what the damage is they can cause.

 

Tending to the garden takes patience, diligence and the desire to have a better outcome than the last crop we tried to grow. Becoming discouraged isn’t going to help our crop. Giving up won’t help the garden grow. We need to be forever watchful on the condition of our garden. Does it need more water, less fertilizer, what are its needs exactly to produce good fruit?

 

Our spiritual lives need that same kind of nurturing. A watchful eye and a caring heart with the desire to grow the kind of fruit our Heavenly Father would be proud. Someone who is after good results from intentional labor instead of crop failure due to unlabored efforts.

 

All of this doesn’t require a green thumb but an intentional heart and a willing spirit to labor for Jesus and to grow, grow, grow!

 

In Other Words Tuesday Picking and Planting

October 16, 2012

Our quote for this week's focus is from the Bible in Galatians 6:7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. In other words, in the end we may not like what we reaped but it’s what we sowed. We need to start out right, picking the correct seeds.

The first week of our “harvesting a crop God can be proud of” series we talked about preparing the soil for our planting. This week we get to talk about the picking and planting of the seeds. For some people the hardest part about the garden is the picking of the seeds. If you’ve ever planted some of the seeds believe me they can be pretty tiny and that creates a problem as well.

 

In the process of picking out seeds the first order of business is knowing what you want. If you want corn then what you pick out is corn seeds, sounds simple enough doesn’t it? No, not really it’s never that easy of course it deepens if you want yellow corn, or sweet corn, tall corn, or short. One by one you still have to weed out what it is you don’t want. You already know what you want to harvest but you have to get the right seed.

 

After getting the packages all lined out then comes the reading of the instructions on the when, where, and how to plant the seeds. Each item picked has to be planted at the right depth, in the right kind of light, with the necessary distance between seeds, and a few other tidbits to watch out for.

 

There is no doubt about it if we pick out the wrong seed we will get a wrong crop. Duh, Karen! Now, now don’t get too nasty too soon because if you think about it people are really stupid, dumb, nuts, crazy, or whatever you call it in this area. They plant a crop in their lives and when the harvest comes around they just can't believe what they got. As I've always said, "We may not like what we’ve sowed but it is what we planted." God said that in His scripture about how God is not mocked, you reap what you sow! Go figure.

 

Here is my confession I promised….I planted a garden once and after the months went by we were so excited to see what made it and what didn’t. One of the things that grew really good was the watermelon. It was the perfect size for eating when we decided to enjoy our harvest. As the grandkids and I gathered around in the kitchen to slice our newly grown treasure we got the surprise of our life. On the outside the watermelon was long, round, oval, green, and all the other features of a good watermelon. However, when we sliced it open it was orange. Orange? Yes, what we had grown was not a watermelon but a pumpkin that wasn’t totally ready for picking yet. We had totally forgotten that we didn’t plant the watermelon seeds that year because there was no room in garden for them.

 

We do this with our spiritual harvest as well. We think for sure we know what we planted but when it comes to harvest time we are surprised. We live our lives as we see fit and when we harvest a crop that isn’t that pleasant we wonder where we went wrong. The fault lies in the seeds we pick out to plant and grow. As Billy Graham once said, "We can’t sin all week and go to church on Sunday and pray for crop failure. Ignorance of what you have sown does not release you from what you reap."

 

The seed packages we need to be going after are the ones full of God’s word, faith, trust, obedience, self-denial, patience, love, and the list goes on. We can complain that our garden isn’t big enough for all that so we choose to leave out a crop or two but we are without excuse. The planting ground of our hearts God has given us is efficient enough to handle all we need to produce for Jesus.

 

A lot of the things we grow produce their own seeds and the cycle goes on, such as the seeds the words of our mouths produce. Some of the seeds turn out to be good and others are not so good. Once again it all depends on what we originally planted in our hearts as to what kind of word-seed gets planted.

 

As nice as it would be for Satan to stay out of our gardens he likes to come in uninvited to plant his own seeds. Seeds of doubt, discontent, disobedience, impatience, lack of faith, selfishness, and more. This brings up a whole new struggle in the garden and that is the weeding out of the things that grow uninvited or sadly enough, “invited.” God isn’t mocked, He’s not a fool, He knows we will reap what we sow. it’s important we know that as well.

 

We need to live intentional lives, intentionally picking out the fruit that God requires us to grow. We can’t live a wildflower seed life forever. A kind of life where you just randomly throw some seeds out on the ground and hope they grow or again, pray for crop failure on Sunday.

 

Truly, the best seed of all is the seeds of eternal life, the message of the gospel that contains eternal life. Spiritually we are where we are today because someone picked and planted a seed of eternal life in us or in our parents and ancestors who passed it down from generation to generation. We need to do this as well.

 

Pick and plant; plant and pick as you grow a crop today that will harvest tomorrow an awesome produce for the kingdom of God.

 

Forever fruitful. Forever God’s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Other Words Tuesday ~~~ Prepared to Produce

My model in the picture is my dad in his good old irrigation boots and his trusty shovel.

Our quote this week is, "the condition of our soil makes a difference in the outcome of what we produce. We need to prepare well and then we will have abundant fruit. To prepare sometimes you have to plow the ground under and burn last year's stubbles left over. God will not sow seeds on a field that is not prepared. It's a waste of seed If we do our part God will do His part. Wayne Corderio

 For over fifty years I have watched my dad farm everything from grass hay, to wheat, alfalfa, and potatoes. In spite of the fact he worked hard on the fields the year before they still needed to be prepared each year in provision for the new crop. The last year’s crop had to be plowed under in order to prepare the soil for the new seeds. The fields were not only plowed under once but several times over and over again. After tearing them up they then needed to be smoothed out and corrugated in order for the water to flow thru evenly.

 

The thing that amazed me the most was the fact that no matter how many rocks we picked out of the field the year before each time dad plowed up the fields there were more rocks to pick. We use to think that was the number one crop grown in Powell Butte was rocks. Whether we felt like it was a lost cause or not it was something we had to do if we wanted a good crop. No doubt about it the better the preparation the more abundant the fruit or the crop that it would yield.

 

Our Christian lives are no different. The better the preparation of our souls the more abundant of a crop we will produce in our spiritual walk. Diligence and determination are the driving factors needed to start the process. Old habits, old crops, last year’s stubbles, bad attitudes, and wrong choices all have to be plowed under in order to prepare our souls for new crops yielding God’s will in our lives. Even the fields that grew good crops last year have to be plowed under and prepared all over again in order to yield an abundant harvest.

 

If we aren’t willing to prepare our souls for new growth, new seeds, or better crops then we better not expect God to sow seeds in our unprepared heart because He won’t. It’s a waste of seed, time, and effort. God is more than willing do His part but we have our part as well in the process and that’s getting ready for the new. We have to prepare the field of our heart to accept God’s word and be obedient, to believe in His promises, and trust in His power. However, what comes first is the plowing under of the old and making room for the new. It’s not a onetime course, a once in a life-time event, an evening course offered once a year. It’s something that is never ending.

 

The more diligent and determined we are the more likely we are to get the field of our hearts in the conditions they need in order to produce. It would be great if we were able to get rid of all the old stuff in a onetime plowing but each preparation brings up more stuff that needs to be dealt with. Indeed clogs and clogs of dirt and grime in our lives that will need to be smoothed out and corrugated. Fields that are corrugated well enough with evenly spaced out trenches that allow the living water of Jesus Christ to flow thru our fields freely and evenly.

 

All of it is a process that goes on unnoticed, behind the scenes, to yield a crop evident to all. Truly what we get out of our efforts all depends on what we are willing to put in to it. The corn in Safeway is not in its natural habitat, it was raised in fields prepared to produce. The faith you see in someone’s life didn’t just show up there, it was raised in a heart that was prepared to produce.

 

How prepared are you to produce? Have you disposed of the old first and plowed up the field of your heart getting ready for the new? Prepared to produce is a choice we all need to be willing to make, act upon, and work at. The choice is ours. It’s a choice we’ll never regret as the seed, time, and effort put into it are never wasted.

 

Prepared to produce, prepared to yield!

 

I’m the host this week and for the rest of the month of October as we continue on with this series on harvesting a crop God can be proud of. Now that we have the preparation of the ground taken care of the next step is the picking out and planting of the right seeds. The quote we will be using is Gal 6:7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. In other words, in the end we may not like what we reaped but it’s what we sowed. We need to start out right, picking the correct seeds.
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Others participating are:

Mamas Little treasures
Mr. Linky is giving me trouble again: Put your name and site in the comments and I will add it so people can get to your writing as well as we share in this month's harvest.

Check It Out!

“What is the best safe-guard against false teaching? Beyond all doubt the regular study of the word of God, with prayer for the teaching of the Holy Spirit. The Bible was given to be a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. (Psalm. 119:105.) The man who reads it aright will never be allowed greatly to err.” ~ J.C. Ryle



I love listening to the speakers who tell you to check out what they say against the Bible. Too easily we take what we are fed and don’t look into the ingredients to make sure it is what it claims to be. The scary part about this age old advice of checking it out against the Bible is the fact that false teachings are coming out in Bible’s that are being tweaked to read what people want to hear.



Beyond all doubt the regular study, STUDY which means to “learn” from the word of God is the best safe-guard against false teachings. In other words merely reading the Bible isn’t good enough, we need to study it diligently. We need to look into it with all intensity in order to draw from it what we need to learn.



Just like it’s not good enough to know the Revolutionary War in the United States took place between 1775-1783, it’s not good enough to know God is love. We need to go deeper and get the full story, the full meaning behind what it means to have a God that loves. A God who loves us so much He sent His only Son to die for us. One who loves us enough to discipline and punish us as well for our disobedience when needed.



Instead of settling for half truths we need to go for the whole truth and nothing but the truth. That can only be done by studying God’s written word which originally came from Him alone. Not the “updated” version that satisfies itching ears.



Like it or not we are responsible for getting the truth. God is not going to listen to our excuses about how we thought that was the way it was. We will be held accountable therefore we need to turn to the best safe-guard we have and that is the studying, the learning, and the applying of God’s Holy Word in our lives. Truly the lamp we need to light the path God has set before us in order for us to make the best journey possible on our way to eternal life with Him.



If we’re willing to trust our GPS system on our phone, we need to be willing to trust God and the directions He has given us. A confidence in God’s whole truth and nothing but the truth He has given us as His personal directions to the foot of the cross. Once we see where we can and should be heading we need to follow up by picking out of the seeds we want to grow. Next is the preparation of the ground of the garden we will need to maintain. And last but not least the harvest our crop as the lamp unto our feet and the light into our path goes to work. Check it out!





Our host for the day is Twinkle Mom at her blog SunflowerFaith. It’s a must that you run over there and join with us in sharing on today’s quote. Don’t forget to be with us for the remainder of the month as we cover the subjects of planting seeds, maintaining a garden, and harvest as our introduction to the best safe-guard against false teaching continues.

Our Hinge in an Unhinged World

“The greatest distinction between Christianity and other religions is that the death of its founder did not mark the termination of His life and ministry. . . . . The Resurrection is the hinge on which the truth of our faith turns, and without it nothing else would really matter. . . . The dynamic joy of our faith would turn into speculation, and Christianity would be simply one of many human philosophies and religious theories.” Nothing But the Truth: Upholding the Gospel in a Doubting Age by John MacArthur




It would be interesting to get the statics on how many home grown business went down the minute the original founder passed away. I can name two in my own home town that did just that. Basically their death did mark the termination of the business as it was, as their love ones weren’t interested in making it work. Living in the hometown where the founder of Les Schwab lived and died I’ve been watching to see if the same thing happens to all his tire stores since he passed away recently.



Without the resurrected Christ the same thing would have happened to the church. There is no way we would have kept it going without our founding Father still being alive and well and active in each establishment and heart. It’s a great thing to know that the death of our founder, Jesus Christ didn’t terminate anything but bondage to sin itself. His death and resurrection were the beginning of something bigger not the end of something self-created. No, I take that back it was the end of something self-created, sin.



Indeed the resurrection is the hinge on which the truth of our faith turns. Without it nothing else really matters. It is the reason we stay together and the reason we are able to survive. It’s our life line. We need to show the world that our founder is not dead but very much alive. Alive in our lives, active in our church, present in our hearts, and displayed in our actions.



In order to convince the world we serve a risen Savior we need to believe it ourselves. Too often we live our lives as if God wasn’t there watching over us. We worship Him on Sunday and do our own thing for the rest of the week. When life hits us upside the head we react first in an ungodly manner sometimes and then we turn to God. I am speaking of myself. I’m ashamed of my reactions that get ahead of my actions. God is all I have yet I treat Him sometimes like He’s my last resort, unhinged and trying to hang on by my own strength.



Shame on me, shame on us. Let us make our Founder proud. Many of the people who work for Les Schwab have never met their Founder and never will now that he has passed away. We get to meet our Founder, each and everyone of us. May He be proud, our hinge via faith in an unhinged world.



Nina is our hostess of the week at her site http://mamaslittletreasures.com/ run on over there and read and share with group regarding the wonderful message in today’s quote. October is coming if you hadn’t noticed we will be talking about planting seeds, maintaining a garden and harvesting what we planted. Get your shovels and tools out and join in.

Yes Lord, I Believe

 

“Believe me.” John 4:21a

 

Last week we looked at the story of the Samaritan woman at the well and what Jesus wanted her to believe in. This week our assignment is to stop and think about what is it that God is trying to get us to believe or NOT believe. A time of reflection to meditate on what God wants us to believe as we say, “Yes Lord, I believe.”

 

Years ago when I was in the midst of a major storm in life God talked to my heart and told me, “This too shall pass.” That was the one thing at the time He wanted me to believe. He was asking me to trust in the fact that what I was dealing with would eventually pass. It was a needed lesson back then and still is today.

 It is a lesson that goes along way as we all find ourselves in situations that are painful and very difficult that seem to last forever. Indeed at the time it appeared good times were traveling through at lightning speed and the tough times lingered on like a slow poke child reluctant to go to school. Slow or fast it doesn’t matter we still need to believe that eventually everything passes. What we do in those moments, how we come out of them depends on our behavior and actions. We can either believe in God’s truth or Satan’s lie, the choice is ours.

 

Another thing I had a hard time believing once was the scripture that said, “greater is He that is in me than he that was in the world.” The way my life was going there was no way that God was greater than the evil force I was up against. That scripture had to be some kind of typo or something that didn’t pertain to “my situation” was my immature thinking.

 

Yes, I was falling for Satan’s lies instead of believing in God’s truth. God was greater but I wasn’t trying to look at things His way. I was too busy looking at the negative, the bad that were happening as I remained trapped in the depth of one pity party after another. It took several years but eventually God was able to get through to my hardened heart to show me that yes indeed He was the greater One.

 

Too easily we fall for Satan’s lies before we believe in God’s truth. It’s a fight we need to be willing to win as we look for God’s truth and hang on to it. Satan is out there trying all he can to disguise his lies to look like the truth like the two examples of what God wanted me to believe. Satan was good at making it appear as if the bad was never going to pass and that Satan was the greater more loud force in the world.

 

If you think about it, no bad time flies at the speed we want them to because we are anxious for them to get by. Kind of like the saying about how a watch pot never boils. Good times fly because we are so excited about them and we aren’t paying attention to each moment that passes. Suddenly before we know it they’re gone and we want them back.

 

As far as Satan being greater than God it’s because of the loud obnoxious sound of Satan’s voice that he comes across as being the bigger force. Truth is all he is, is the squeaky annoying wheel that gets all the oil and attention just to silence its sound. Frequently he likes to put on a big show to prove himself where God works best silently behind the scenes with nothing to prove.

 

No matter what the subject or what it is God is trying to get us to believe it’s important to make sure it is from God. We need to open our hearts to what God has to say, to pray daily, and engulf ourselves into His word. A heart that is willing to listen is much easier to get thru to than one that is stubborn and hardened full of skepticism and disbelief.

 

“Yes, Lord. I believe, in You!” That covers a lot of territory that covers a lot of truth!

 

Our host today is Loni again at her site Writing Canvas, after you’ve thought about what it is God wants you to believe or NOT believe join in with us and share.

Fill My well Lord

Jesus said to her, “woman, believe me.” Jesus Christ in His book John 4:21a

One day on her routine trip to the local well a Samaritan woman encountered something she wasn’t expecting, Jesus. Standing at the well with her He got to talking to her about things like living water and never being thirsty again. Soon the conversation ended with, “Woman, believe me.” Jesus wanted her to believe not only what He had already said but what He was about to say. What He had to say about the time that was coming soon where true worshippers will worship God in spirit and truth.

 

Isn’t it wonderful that one day we all can encounter something we weren’t expecting and that is, Jesus. Out of nowhere He shows up in our lives with words of wisdom for us to not only listen to but words to believe in. His words to us are no differently than they were for this woman as He looks us into the eye and says, “Woman, believe Me.”

 

Recently as a devastating thing struck my immediate family out of nowhere I told my youngest granddaughter that we are going to trust in the promises of God. We are going to trust Him when He says, “All things work for the good of those who love the Lord. That He will never leave us or forsake us. It’s true that we can do all things thru Christ who strengthens us.”

 

In order to trust we first must believe. Once we believe in these promises of God then we are able to trust in them as well. We need to believe Christ is the living water and the fact that if we turn to Him as our resource we will never be thirsty again. Believe what He says about being a true worshipper. Believe it when He speaks to our hearts about ordinary things in life on unordinary days.

 

It can’t be said enough, our job is to believe. To meet Jesus halfway to the well and believe what He has to say. The more we do the deeper our well becomes. When times get rough, uncertainty is in the air, confusion and chaos surrounds us we know things will be okay because we were prepared by first believing.

 

It’s important that we never allow Satan to drain our well by installing a pump of doubt that just robs us of all our spiritual resources. Protect the resource you have in Jesus, the blessings that come from believing in His truths instead of trying to live off Satan’s lies. Whether by buckets of water or by a slow drip, drip, drip of a leaky faucet we need to put a stop to Satan trying to steal what belongs to us thru the avenue of not believing.

 

“Woman, believe Me.” We can believe Jesus and we should! Fill your well, prepare for rain.

 

Our host today is Loni at her blog Writing Canvas. It’s a great scripture to think about, go and join us and see what others have to say about what Jesus says to all of us.

Dedicated to God, Dedicated to Each Other

Blessed are the husband and wife who humbly dedicate their lives and their home to Christ and practice the teachings of Christ in their home by being unselfish, loyal, and loving. Author unknown

According to Webster the word dedicate means to set apart for a definite use, to commit to a goal or way of life, to offer, donate, and bestow. We dedicate ourselves to our favorite sport as we train to be the best at it. We dedicate ourselves to our job or a hobby we love, to the point where that is all we seem to do. When we get married we dedicate our lives to our spouse as we promise to love honor and obey them.

We like the sound of dedicating our lives to a sport, hobby, or job but when someone mentions being dedicated to our spouse we tend to cringe. Whether we like it or not this is the way God set it up to be. We were made to be together dedicating our lives, families, and home to Christ.

One must ask the question, “What does it take to be dedicated?” It certainly takes strength, determination, and the will to succeed. We need to be willing to give it our all and hold back nothing. Strong enough to weather the storms and diverse enough to live our lives together with the one we love instead of letting our attitude of, “It’s my way or the highway” separate us emotionally and spiritually.

In the amplified Bible they give the definition of blessed as “happy, fortunate, to be envied.” If you put the two definitions of blessed and dedicated together you come up with, “Blessed or happy, fortunate, to be envied are the husband and wife who humbly dedicate, set apart their family for a definite use, to commit to the goal or way of life that is found in Christ.”

Wow, that is a wonderful definition that we need to hold on to and remember. Remember like we should commit to memory the first time we fell in love with our spouse. Once when I was at Disneyland with a friend every time I saw a couple that was kissing and smiling at one another I prayed for them to “remember Disneyland.” Later in their lives as it happens to everyone, there will be moments of doubt, stress, and difficult times that will make anyone wonder if they really were in love in the first place.

We need to remember our commitment to one another and to Christ as well. Living daily, in spite of the season we are in at the time, loyal, loving, and unselfish lives. Dedicated to doing well, to stand by Christ and the commandments He has given us to follow and stand by each other. As we would never in our lives forget we were dedicated to the sport of football or the hobby of oil painting we should never forget our dedication to each other.

Someone once said the longest sentence in the English language is, “I do.” How long that sentence is, how well it is spent, the good moments we get out of it all depends on us and our attitude going in and our dedication to Christ to succeed. But what about if …….. this or ……….. that happens! STOP! We can't live our lives on the “what ifs.” We need to move forward in our dedication and leave the rest to the Lord. No worries about the “what ifs” only the determination to succeed whether we truly do or not.

My husband sometimes probably thinks he got the raw end of the deal going into our marriage. He should have checked my medical records but they weren’t created yet. A week after being married I had a grand mal seizure, lost my job, my driver’s license was taken away and I was disabled for 12 years before being cured. Twenty years would pass and I would be diagnosed with breast and bone cancer. Was this what he signed up for? More or less, yes, as our marriage license didn’t assure us smooth sailing ahead but our dedication to each other and to God would assure us success, strength, and the ability to endure, together, dedicated to Jesus and that is where we all need to be.

Love you Don, thanks for loving me through the thick and thin of life.

Our host today is Urailak at her blog , LivingforGod it’s a must that you go there and read and share with others what they have to say about today’s quote. For some it’s not a happy subject as things have happened in their relationships but with God we are still able to move forward, to rise above those moments, take our struggles and learn from them instead of allowing ourselves to fall a victim to what deck of cards life has handed us.

Right Side IN

“What we do as followers of Christ flows out of who we are in Christ.” Scott Savage Minister to Young Adults North Phoenix Baptist Church 

 

The mystery still remains when people ask the question, “Which came first the chicken or the egg?” Everyone has their own answer to that puzzle like many have different answers to, “where does what we do as followers in Christ flow from?” The only answer to that question is not a mystery it is plain and simple, it comes from who we are in Christ.

 It starts with who we are IN Christ. Like the old saying goes, garbage in, garbage out. What comes out of our mouths flows from what is in our hearts. What we do as followers of Christ flows out of who we are in Christ. It’s as simple as that. Without Christ on the inside of us it will never show up on the outside.

 It begins with inviting Christ into our lives and then making the room for Him to work, live, and operate. Christ wasn’t meant to be a couch potato living at our place doing absolutely nothing. We are the ones that make Him out to be that way by not allowing Him access to every part of our lives.

 Christ wasn’t meant to be put up on a shelf and dusted off with the family Bible whenever we need a prayer answered or a scripture found. He is designed to work from the inside out. Too often we find ourselves wearing our clothes inside out and it just doesn’t work. This weekend as I got my grandson ready for church I noticed he had his shirt on inside out. The convincing element for him to believe me was the tag hanging out in the back.

 Why isn’t it that simple to let people know they are wearing their spiritual clothes inside out? They think wearing a cross around their necks, going to church on Sunday, never committing adultery or any of the "big” sins makes them a Christian. That is a totally backward, inside out attitude on what needs to be. They are trying to dress from the outside in not the inside out.

 It can’t be said enough that Christ needs to be on the inside where He is allowed to operate. By doing that our spiritual walk is launched into something that demonstrates we have Christ living in our house and the flow begins. How we operate the spiritual home of our heart will determine what flows out in the things we do. Plain and simple we need to keep Christ active and available by the choices we make, the attitudes we display, the willingness we have to allow Him the access to the most important part of our lives, our heart, His home.

 Christ in, Christ out. It’s as simple as that. Where it gets complicated is when we try to hold back pieces of our lives for ourselves and close off access to rooms we don’t want to give up. Rooms that is full of resentment, anger, “our rights”, bad choices, and so much more. Time is now to open up that access and allow Christ on the inside and start to wear our spiritual clothes on right.

 Right side in means Christ on the INside, flowing out in all we say and do!

 

Our host today is Debbie at Heart Choices, you need to get over there to see and share with the rest of the gang on this great quote.

 

 

Welcome to the Family

Our children can learn that . . . . the concept of “family” does not rest solely on biology.
They can learn that love transcends many artificial boundaries frequently put into place by humans. They can learn that closing one door can open another door and another and another . . . . ” Caroline Harding, adoptive parent

 On my blogspot for kids I have a page reserved for encouragement for my grandkids. The encouragement that is offered there is for all my grandkids “whether adopted by love or acquired by blood.” Technically by blood or biologically I have four grandchildren. By love, all the ones I have adopted over the years I have over eleven. I even have a great granddaughter who was adopted by love. All of which have been welcomed into our family one by one.

Recently one of my adopted grandchildren was concerned about her real grandfather who was recently put on hospice. I asked her Aunt if I had permission to talk to Jayleena about the latest news regarding his health. The response I got was, “Well, you are her grandma. Yes, you can tell her.” It made me feel good inside knowing I not only had adopted her as my child but they had adopted me as well.

It was like a program our church started for the seniors. It was a “adopt a grandparent” program where the younger generation got to pick an older couple to watch over them and encouragement them as a grandchild would. The couple I chose was the perfect pair. Immediately they adopted me just as much or more as I had them. They were the most wonderful pair. Grandma Bunny passed away this year but I still have Grandpa Chuck to love on.

It is so true that the concept of family doesn’t have to rest solely on whether you are biologically related by blood or adopted by love. It goes beyond that. It goes beyond step-siblings and half-brothers or prodigal relatives. What a blessed feeling it is to know that we are loved enough to be adopted by someone.

Loved enough to be accepted into ones family circle, to be a part of the family tree with no missing branches or fallen limbs. Cared about enough to be invited in to where we originally were not planted. We don’t have to put a boundary on our love and who we will accept or not. It’s not something to be ashamed of that you are “only adopted.” It’s a privilege to be adopted into a family just like it is to be adopted by God into His family. With either it’s up to us to receive the invitation as we are welcomed with open arms.

They are wrong when they say, “You can pick your friends but you can’t pick your relatives.” You may not get to pick all of your relatives but there are a lot out there we can pick from. The choice becomes ours if we are willing to open up our hearts to something more. The key is finding the room or better yet making the room to allow others to enter and call your heart, their home.

Welcome to the family!

Our host today in Nina at Mama’s Little Treasures, you need to run over there and join in our Tuesday circle as we write and share about today’s quote.

Packaged Deal

 Micah 7:7,8 As for me, I look to the Lord for his help, I wait confidently for God to save me, and my God will certainly hear me. Do not gloat over me, my enemies! For though I fall I will rise again. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord Himself will be my light.

Recently at a county fair I was talking to a veteran about my grandpa’s military things I have from WWI. I told him I have the trench coat he wore, the dagger off the end of his gun, and the New Testament Bible he carried in his pocket. The coat was used to keep him warm and protected, the dagger was the tool he used to defend himself and the New Testament Bible was his weapon of choice to fight against his spiritual enemies.

This scripture in Micah are those three things to us and more. It is the trench coat used as a shawl for ourselves for warmth and protection. The dagger-like tool needed to defend ourselves and the weapon required to fight our spiritual enemies. Three in one wrapped neatly in the package of a few words that carries a lot of power and strength.

 Starting out with the snug fit of, “As for me,” you can just see Micah as he stood before the crowd claiming his coat. This was his pelt, his thing that he must have covered himself in frequently. It was a strong statement from him like it was from Joshua when he said it before the Israelites. “As for me and my household we will serve the Lord!” What a wonderful thing to use to wrap your family in, a one size fits all kind of a deal.

 The first layer of wrap is in the fact that he looks to God for his help but he doesn’t stop there. Another wrap of the snuggly fit coat is how he waits confidently for God to save him. As you stand there wrapped in those two things you can’t help but feel the warmth and protection it gives us. This is what gave Micah his confidence and it can do the same for us as well. Indeed the assurance in the Lord that serves as a part of this well-fitting garment for us to snuggle into.

 Once fully dressed in the trench coat of his confidence in God Micah now makes sure he has the dagger needed to defend himself. The dagger or sword used to pierce his enemy as well as our enemy today which is the devil and his evil workers. As Micah stood firm so can we as we speak out against the evils of the world making the exact same statement, “Do NOT gloat over me, my enemies! For though I fall I will rise again. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord Himself will be my light.”

 Oh man, you can just hear the power behind his voice as he stated these words. “Do not gloat over me, my enemies, though I fall I will rise again!” We need to know that although Satan can knock us down or trip us he can’t make us fall to the point we can never get back up. Why? Because we have the third part of the package and that is the weapon of God’s word to keep us spiritually safe as we carry it around in the pocket of our heart.

 There’s no doubt about it there will be times when we find ourselves sitting in the darkness of a gloomy world. We will experience what it is like to be surrounded by it to the point it feels like it overtakes or overwhelms us. However, our hope is in the fact that though we find ourselves there the Lord himself will be our light. In other words we have no need to feel overwhelmed; God’s light will pierce the darkness every time.

 We don’t have to wait at the end of the tunnel for the light of God to pierce our darkness He does it in the midst of our hard times. Our responsibility is to look for that light and go towards it, to maintain our confidence knowing that though we fall we will rise again thanks to the Lord. Though we sit in darkness the Lord himself will be our light. Thanks to Jesus.

Wow what an honor to know that the Lord himself will be our light. We are that special to Him that He is willing to be the light in our life that gets us through the darkness. I don’t know about you but His light has helped me through many hard times. It has shined in the darkest of places and lite a path that guided me out to where I needed to be. He is my confidence, my help, and I know He most certainly will hear me, He always has. He may not answer when I think He should or the way in which I wanted but that’s okay.

Yes, as for me, God is it. He is the strength I need to endure, the light I need to walk in, the security blanket I cuddle next to in the promises of His word. The reason I can rise again when life knocks me down. The sharpen tool capable of piercing the lies and schemes of the devil. He is the package deal that will see me though life itself forever and ever amen. Selah! So be it!

Thanks for joining us today. Be sure and visit everyone and see what they have to say about today’s scripture. In the meantime think about the invitation God puts out for us, “The Lord himself will be our light.” You can’t get any better than that. This scripture is a big sword but not too big that we can’t carry it around with us and draw it out when necessary and lean on daily for strength and support. Put on your trench coat of confidence, your dagger of defense and your weapon of God’s word and fight the good fight of faith. God bless.

**I tried several times to get Mr. Linky to work and I don't see it. If he doesn't show up put your link in the comments and we'll take it from there. Watch all the Mr. Linky's I put on here in an attempt to get it to work will show up. If so pick your linky and take it from that spot. Ha Ha

Link up to:

Nina at

http://mamaslittletreasures.com/in-other-words-can-you-see-the-glimmer-of-light-on-the-horizon

Laura at
          http://www.laurarath.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-light-of-lord.html

>

Molting or Plucking

He will cover you with His feathers. He will shelter you with His wings. His faithful promises are your armor and protection. Psalm 91:4 NLT





Many times I have read this verse in Psalm 91 but for some reason this time around when I read it the word “feather” jumped out at me. I instantly thought of the days when people were tarred and feathered. Don’t ask me why but I did. Turning to Google I searched for information regarding this horrible act.




It was stated that back before the late nineteenth century people took it upon themselves to punish other people by tarring and feathering them when they didn’t do what they thought they should. For example a Skipper of a boat was once tarred and feathered by a group of women in Massachusetts because he refused to aid seamen in distress. Truly it was used as an act of physical punishment of unofficial justice and revenge. For a time it was a legal punishment used in England and later used in extralegal demonstrations in the American colonies and the United States until the late 19th century.




As I found out it was an act of revenge and people taking the law into their own hands. What a praise it is that the feathers that the Lord covers us with is something that is totally different. It’s not an act of punishment, revenge, or unofficial justice. It is done for our protection out of love to create a shelter or hiding place for us. It’s not done to label us a bad person but to show how much God really cares about us.



With the Lord instead of being tarred and feathered as we really deserve because of our sins we are covered with feathers out of love. One feather at a time the Lord’s love covers over us. His faithful promises are our armor and protection. We get the choice to keep those feathers on us and snuggle into them or pluck them out one by one. Plucking them out by our attitudes, actions, and choices we make in life.



Recently our chickens have been losing their feathers on their backs. When asked what could be the cause of that, many people told us they are molting. It something chickens do once a year as they lose their old feathers and grow new ones. One chicken farmer asked us right off, “Do you have a rooster in with the hens?” When we answered yes he knew immediately the cause of the lost feathers was the rooster picking on the hens.



Its one thing to molt once a year to get rid of the old feathers in order to grow the new but a totally different practice to pluck them out ourselves. We need to ask ourselves, “Which are we doing? Are we molting or plucking. Are we getting rid of the old in order for the new to grow or just simply eliminating the blanket of protection God offers us through His promises.



In Romans 12:1 we are told to renew our minds, other scriptures tell us to get rid of the old sinful practices we once did and take on the new attitude of Christ. It’s a practice that needs to happen more than once a year. We are the ones who get to choose whether we will accept God’s shelter in the feathery comfort of His soft promises or pluck out what we don’t want to hear and try to build our own feathered bed to lie on.



Try as we might it will never compare to what God has to offer us. Molting or plucking? I’d rather molt if it means getting rid of the old in order to make room for the new, the new in Christ.



Our hostess for this mini-series through Psalm 91 is Twinkle Mom who will be sharing on her blog, SunflowerFaith. Fly on over there and share with others what the scripture today means to you.

Truly Thankful

This I declare about the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; He is my God, and I trust Him. Psalm 91:2 NLT



I love how this scripture starts out, “This I declare about the Lord!” It gives that firm finger wagging opening approach we use to get from the preachers at the pulpit. Penny Penhollow the preacher I grew up with in Powell Butte Oregon was good at that. He really got into his sermons and how he presented them served as a funnel suction that drew the congregation into what he felt, believed, and lived out in his life. It would do us well to be like those who are willing to stand up and declare to all those around us what we feel about the Lord and what He is to us. To be thankful for and appreciate all He has done whether we understand what is going on or not.


Whenever I read in the Bible a scripture that talks about God is my refuge, my place of safety, my God, my rock, my redeemer, my Savior, etc. I circle the word MY. I claim those as MY own as we all should. 1 Samuel 22 has a whole list of MY’s that would do us well to look at them and claim them for ourselves. We need to do so by putting out our voices or finger and state in words and action “This I declare about the Lord, He alone, alone, unaccompanied, single-handedly, without help, no one else, by Himself is MY ……. and let the list begin.


In today’s society we are guilty as charged of not telling our love ones enough what we think about them in the positive manner. We are quick to criticize and slow to praise. We have gotten that way with our worship and praise of God. We are quick to criticize what He has or hasn’t done in our lives but we are slow to praise Him and declare, announce, speak out, affirm what He truly means to us.


How is anyone ever going to know what we feel about the Lord or others if it’s never stated? One of our biggest problems I think we have with this is we assume too much. We assume our love ones should know we love them and God should know it too. What more do they expect, we don’t have time to stop and say it. ‘Good gravy,’ we’re busy people! A quick text should do. We don’t have time to call, we don’t have time to write, and we don’t have time to declare. They should know this stuff anyway. Can’t they tell? A simple pushing of the “like” button on Facebook should be enough to let them know we care.


WRONG! Without proper declaration with affirmation the message gets lost, smothered and totally distorted. The “I love you” in a text is that short, “I love you” and often it becomes even shorter sometimes, “I luv u.” or “I heart (symbol) u.” I love you in a face-to-face conversation can go on for hours. We need to stop using the shorter versions and begin those face-to-face conversations that can go on for hours. Not only with our love ones but with God as well as we stop assuming and start declaring what those around us mean to us, especially God.


Therefore, this day I would like to go first and declare what my family and God means to me. “God is my refuge and strength. He is my hero, my friend, and my stronghold. He has been the post I have been able to lean upon, the nourishment I needed to grow in, and the guide I needed to see me through dark and roughened roads. To Him I am truly thankful. He was the whisper in the night I needed to make me feel secure, the bright light in the day that gave out not only brightness but warmth as well. He was the hug I required when I felt lonely, the smile I needed when I couldn’t. My provider of all my spiritual wants and needs who gave me the family I have today. To Him I am truly thankful.

They are the family who has walked me through not only my epilepsy but now my cancer. To them I am truly thankful. They are the crutches I needed to walk across soft sandy beaches when my bone cancer prohibited me from doing it on my own. The lift up long stairs, the giggle I love to hear, the blessing that brings Sunshine to my day. To them I am truly thankful. They are the encouragement I require, the joy and happiness I need. I declare! I declare! I declare between God and my family and all they have done for me. I am truly thankful. Thank you for being all that I require and all that I need. To all of you, I am truly thankful.




Our hostess for this mini-series through Psalm 91 is Twinkle Mom who will be sharing on her blog, SunflowerFaith. It’s a must to go over there and see what she declares and the many others who participate.