In Udder Words Tuesday ~~~ Keep On Keeping On

“You have to be determined that nothing is going to hinder you from fulfilling God’s plan and purpose for your life.” Joyce Meyers

 

Last night as I went over to my parent’s house my dad asked me how I was doing. Ever since I came back from the Cancer Treatment Center in Arizona he’s been asking me that every time he sees me. Along with his question this time he gave a little parental advice. He told me to never give up, to keep on keeping on. It touched my heart to hear his encouragement although it’s something he has told me all of my life.

 

 It is so true that we need to be determined that nothing is going to hinder us from fulfilling God’s plan and purpose for our lives. Each of us travels down our chosen roads but things seem to come up that creates a detour sign that sends us off in a different direction.

 

 Years ago my husband and I got into that same situation when we were detoured over a mountain pass we were traveling on. A deadly accident on the top of the mountain was creating a delay so everyone was detoured around it. The road they had us go on was narrow, winding, rough, and rocky. It wasn’t the typically paved highway we all like to drive on. After traveling for miles we began to doubt we read the detour sign right. The road was taking us into a part of the wilderness we had never seen before.

 

 When was it going to end? Where would we wind up? What if we had taken the wrong road? Doubt and fear flooded our minds as we continued on, going back would only create a longer journey home down a different, lengthier path we were more familiar with. Finally after sticking to it we came to the end of the road and came out in an area where we at last knew where we were.

 

 Life is like that on a daily basis it seems like and we need to be determined to keep on going and to not give up. Fighting my epilepsy years ago was often more than I could handle but in order to get anywhere in life I had to keep moving forward. Now with cancer facing me the same rules of the road applies, “Keep moving forward.” 

 

 The road we are forced to take may not be the smooth path we were on, it may be rough and rocky but if we stick with it we’ll eventually come out ahead. God doesn’t send us on these detours without traveling with us. He’s not the flagman at the detour sign pointing his finger to, ‘go that way.’ He’s the pilot car ahead of us asking us to follow Him.

 

 The only way that is possible is to be determined to keep on going and not allow anything to hinder God’s plans for our lives. Often we think situations in life do that to us frequently when it’s only a partial truth. The biggest thing that hinders us from fulfilling God’s plans for us is “us.”

 

 Ouch! Did that hurt to say that? It’s the truth. Our attitude and lack of determination will be the downfall of any progress we could be making at fulfilling God’s plans for us. We need to set our eyes on Jesus and keep on going in spite of life’s detours, obstacles, washed out bridges, and delayed traffic. Eventually we are going to come to the end of the road and we will be somewhere familiar on a path with Jesus, all because of our determination to keep on keeping on.

 

 © 2012 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing       In Udder Words Tuesday

ALLOWance

“We must allow the Word of God to confront us, to disturb our security, to undermine our complacency and to overthrow our patterns of thought and behavior.” John Stott





Recently as I was reading in the book of Philippians something jumped out at me around the 20th verse in chapter one. Paul talked about how he didn’t want to do anything that would shame him. It made me think about how we have gotten away from that kind of stuff. We don’t worry about things shaming us because we aren’t ashamed.



As John Scott says in this quote we need to allow the Word of God to confront us and convict us and to realize there are some behaviors we should be ashamed of. The Bible wasn’t meant for our Sunday reading pleasure and a place to keep track of our family tree and who died when and when someone was baptized.


The Bible is there as our guide to better living. Often people say they wish babies would come with an owner’s manual. Truthfully if you think about it they do if we have our Bible near by. It gives us all we need to know in material that never becomes outdated. It works from infancy to our golden years and beyond.

As well written as it is it will never do us any good without allowing it to pentetrate deep down inside of who we are. It needs to get to the core of our being not the surface of our lives. Instead of turning our backs on it we need to confront it as it confronts us and our patterns of behavior. The patterns not pleasing to the Lord that should cause us great shame.


Years ago when I was a young Christian there were several scriptures in the Bible I thought were misprints or outdated material. For example the scripture that says that greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world. The way life was going for me at the time I just couldn’t see that as being true. It took awhile but finally God’s word and spirit was able to undermine and overthrow the lie I was trying to believe as the truth finally came out.

What good is love if we don’t allow someone to love us. What good is learning if we don’t allow someone to teach us. What good is being forgiven if we don’t allow ourselves to forgive. What good is God’s word if we don’t allow it to penetrate deep into we are or should be.


The choice is ours to allow God to do the work He needs to do in all of us. The work of undermining and overthrowing our patterns of shameful behavior that shouldn’t be. Its not always easy to step aside and allow it to happen but when we do we will never regret it.


God’s in the building up business not the tearing down. Its up to us to turn over the construction job of our lives over to Him and let the ALLOWance begin. The paying back of benefits reaped from trusting God and following His word to do what it was meant to do in our hearts. To confront, convict, and conceive a life born again in Christ, unashamed and fully devoted to our Lord Savior. Praise the Lord.

© 2011 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

A Better View

“‎ The God who walks in the paths of history through the pages of the Bible pins a mission statement to every signpost on the way.” C.J.H. Wright (The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative )


Its great having hindsight isn’t it? We get a better view and we understand a little more. Plus if it’s the hindsight from someone else’s journey we can breath a sigh of relief that we didn’t have to go through it ourselves. Sorry Noah, Moses, Daniel, and Shaddrach. Looking through the pages of the Bible we can see the messages on the signposts where to those who were currently traveling through couldn’t. Once again, we are the ones who get a better view.


It works no differently with our lives and the journey’s we are taking. We may see a mission statement here or there but they are not always visible to us. We can’t even pay attention to the warning signs along the way let alone the mission statements.


It would serve us well to learn how to probably travel. When you’re a business person on the road a lot you learn from experience how it’s done. Traveling in new territories you pay attention to the signs along the way. As fast as they come up on you sometimes they are easy to miss. “Oh that was the road we were supposed to turn on.” Even the good old faithful GPS’s have been known to lead people astray.


Six years ago when my grandson was severely burnt by McDonald’s coffee he was flown in a helicopter to a bigger and better hospital a hundred miles from where we lived. Thrust into the journey to follow the helicopter who took our precious one-year-old away in we set out for the big city. Needless to say at 11:30 at night we had to call the hospital to get directions to talk us in to where we needed to be.


At the time we weren’t looking for a duty roster along the way, just directions. Looking back at the situation I can see all sorts of things God had planned for us to do and learn during that time. What’s important for us to learn and live is knowing that in God’s society nothing is wasted. He can take anything and use it to His glory and our benefit.


Our assignment may not be as clear as that big billboard along the way but its there just the same. Like we had to trust the helicopter to deliver our young one to the right hospital and trust the hospital to give us the right directions to get us there, we need to trust God. Trust Him to know what He is doing, that He’s not out there leading us around in circles. He has a mission for us and we will eventually see that if we continue to look in the right direction, going forever forward to Christ alone.


The better view of our situations may not come until we reach Heaven but by then, who cares. We will be in the best view of all, in view of Jesus. Praise the Lord.


Journey forward, journey strong!

© 2011 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

His Pace, His Speed

“Learning to wait on God’s timing –and having the patience to follow his lead rather than running ahead of him –is essential to those who are committed to seeing their faith journey through to the end. God seldom rushes things along. Getting used to his pace will help you in the long run.”~ Essentials for Life For Women by Marcia Ford ~

Recently in my life’s endeavors I made what I called “every hour on the hour” prayer list of things to pray for my daughter and each member of her family. Trying to pick things that were vital to their Christian walk I inserted in the 5:00 in the morning slot “walking with the Lord and learning how to follow.”


As everyone knows the first thing we do when we get up in the morning is walk. We may not get up very gracefully but we still eventually will get to walking. It’s a trait we have to learn physically as well as spiritually.


One time at the clinic where I work with the physicians in their billing we were told we needed to allow them to crawl before they could walk. Kind of an odd request as it seemed like a waste of time but if you think about it though crawling is a first step in walking.


A young baby after learning how to roll over on their stomach discovers they can use their hands and feet to get around. The more they do it the faster they become. Soon you find yourself having to child proof your house as they begin to climb up on the areas where they’ve crawled. Next they discover they can take a step when they are standing. From there, well good luck keeping up with them.


That is what we need as Christians, to learn to walk. Too often we stay in the crawling stage and are content to not go any further. Then there are those of us who learned to walk early and a little too well as we are guilty of running ahead of God. Once way ahead of Him we stop long enough to turn around and give Him the instructions of what we think we need and want.


Wrong way to follow! We need to learn to pace ourselves, to run at His pace, His speed and not own. It’s hard sometimes because we are such an instant, fast, got to have it now society that the thought of taking the snail mail route is just unacceptable.


During this time of living with the bone cancer in my back I was the snail in a group of rabbits that wanted to go quickly. Many times I had to tell my husband and grandkids and friends that I just couldn’t keep up with their speed. Finally they got the message I was doing the best I could. Each one respected that and graciously took it at my pace.


Once I got back to work my co-workers told me they wanted me to start walking with them again everyday on our breaks. I was informed they would be willing to go at my speed. I agreed to their offer and for the first time I got to be the one in the lead as everyone did what they could to slow down to my pace. Occasionally they would find themselves passing me so they would have to stop and wait for me to catch up. Surprisingly enough we got where we needed to go. It may have been slower than usual but it did wonders to get out and walk.


We need to have that same attitude with God every hour on the hour, “God I want to stroll with you. We’ll go at your pace. I don’t care if it’s slower than what I want to do.” Wow, what a beautiful thing we can have with God as our walking partner. The art of striding is an art we all need to learn but we also need to learn how to follow.


Once we take that first step, well then, “Good luck in keeping up with us.” That’s the way it needs to be as the lead position never changes. We may get to walk beside Him at times. At other times we may even be carried by Him through the rough times, the slippery slopes, and dangerous ravines but the lead position never changes.


It’s our day to day task to look and ask, “Are we getting ahead of Him?” If we are we need to stop and wait for Him to catch up, or better yet go back to where He is. After all it’s His pace, His speed and our trust and ability to follow that will get us to where we need to be. It doesn’t work to get around behind God and shove Him in the back when we approach rough roads and tell Him, “You lead now” then when the roads are smooth and open we take over being the lead car.


No, no, no it’s His Pace, His Speed. Repeat that over and over again and live it every hour on the hour!

© 2011 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing