In Udder Words ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ No Strings Attached

Frequently when we give out gifts to some people we have the tendency to attach strings to them. ‘I will give you this but you can’t do this or that with what I give you’ becomes our thinking. Quietly or not so quietly we watch from a distance to see if they are going to treat the gift we give them with respect and appreciation.



"No strings attached!" I promise! Yeah right.

 


Instead of a price tag attached to the gift we have our set of rules we think they should follow. We expect the person to react a certain way, be appreciative in an exact manner, and the list of attached strings multiple.



Praise the Lord when God gave us the gift of His son Jesus Christ He didn’t come with strings attached. In fact, if you think about it, Christ came to cut some strings that needed to be done away with. The strings of our failures, our bondage to sin, and our inability to follow the law He gave the people to pursue in the Old Testament.



The fact that we need to believe in Jesus and be obedient to His word doesn’t serve as strings but a ribbon or string cutting ceremony. It's a life line needed to survive for all eternity. In Christ we have been set free from the bondage of sin and its strings that tie us down.



God didn’t attach any strings and neither should we. Find freedom in Christ, have a ribbon cutting ceremony of your own and get away from the bondage our wrong choices, selfish attitudes, and unruly tongues create.

Repentance~~Go and Sin no more

The Christian who has stopped repenting has stopped growing. Repentance is the tear in the eye of faith.” Moody



Often in life we get the wrong idea about what repentance is all about. The first mistake we make is thinking we don’t have to do it because God is so loving, kind and understanding. He forgives all, remembers nothing, everything goes because nothing stays. Yep we reason with ourselves that all is well the minute any act of defiance against God is done because it’s instantly forgiven and forgotten. We turn it into something where God is the one who makes all the moves and we get to sit idly by and continue in our current behavior.


This of course leads us to the second mistake people have with repentance and that is the mistake of thinking saying you’re sorry is enough. However, again true repentance is being sorry for our sins, our behavior, and our attitude with the determination to not go there again. Word of warning for those who don’t make that decision or lifestyle change as time passes on they soon fall into a dangerous trap. The trap where we eventually stop all efforts of repenting which in turn stunts our growth as Christians.


We stop apologizing for our sins, seeking atonement, being sorry for what we have done, and before you know it we lack sorrow for going against God. We have no desire to change our ways in true repentance and we thus find ourselves standing in the middle of a trap already sprung by our own behavior.


Truly the tear in the eye of faith shows up is the sorrowful soul struggling to do what is correct. Wanting badly to follow yet is burdened with frequent obstacles stunting their growth and progress. It’s like what Jesus told the adulteress woman who was about to be stoned by her accusers, “Go and sin no more.” We need to go and sin no more because we have repented. It doesn’t guarantee that we won’t sin again because we stumble, we trip but we don’t have to fall because of our behavior. We must never give into the pressure of “Staying the way we are because God made us that way.” What kind of repentance is that!

We are who we are because we allow it. Repentance says we don’t want to stay there, we want to grow, we want to conqueror, we want to be in control of our own behavior and not let it run a muck. The tear of repentance that begins to stream slowly down our spiritual face shows God we are truly sorry and we want to do better. Don’t fall back on the excuse that “we are human” but stand upon the example of those who have gone before us that stood strong, repented frequently and won the battle as they fell alive into heaven such as Peter and Paul.


Repentance is between us and God but the result produces a by-product for all to enjoy.

© 2012 Karen J. Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

**In this picture I am sharing, is me praying for a love one, repenting my own behavior and crying out to Jesus for various reasons. When I first started praying that day behind me was dark, dark clouds that soon became lighter and brighter. That's the way it is when we start down the road of repentance. At first the cloud around us is pretty dark but if we continue eventually the clouds become lighter and brighter thanks to Jesus.

The Right Critic

“When we are going through desperate, difficult times, the hardest thing can be hearing the voices of condemnation, rejection, and shame from others. The Enemy – the accuser of our brothers – loves to use people to kick us in the stomach when we’re down. The Enemy loves to use our sin to condemn us rather than allow us to hear the conviction of the Holy Spirit . . . Jesus silences the condemning voices and commands them to leave. Listen to the kindness in His voice as He says in John 8:10-11.” By Beth Redman God Knows My Name: Never Forgotten, Forever Loved

As the story goes in the book of John a group of people brought a woman, “caught in sin” to Jesus to have her stoned. Instead of giving them a quick yes or no Jesus started writing in the dirt while telling them that whoever was without sin got to throw the first stone. Instead of being able to throw the stone they wanted to so badly one stone after another dropped to the ground while they quietly snuck away.

After Jesus stood up from His writing ordeal He looked around as if He was surprised, “Where’s your accusers?” He asked. The woman told Him they were all gone. Jesus then tells her, “well I don’t condemn you either, go and sin no more.”

What a praise it is that Jesus doesn’t condemn us. We don’t need to condemn ourselves. We don’t need to listen to Satan’s condemnation. What we need to do is “go and sin no more.” During hard and rough times it seems like the voices that are the loudest are those full of condemnation. People thinking they could have “worn your shoes better” and did things a lot more successful.

Back in the days of when my daughter first told me she was pregnant I struggled a great deal with what others may say about the situation. As time passed my defenses went up and I was ready for any of those critics out there in critic land. I had my mind already made up that if anyone came along and condemned me or her and rattled on about “what they would have done.” I was ready to take off my shoes and hand them to them telling them, “if you think you could do better, here’s my shoes.”

Thanks to God fearing people and an understanding church family the occasion never arose. Everyone was very supportive and lessons were learned, granddaughters were born, and God told us all “go and sin no more.” He never once condemned us but encouraged us to go forward wiser and more Christ-like.

It’s when we begin to listen to these voices over the voice of God telling us, “I don’t condemn you either, go and sin no more,” that we get discouraged. We begin a downward spiral in our spirit that doesn’t need to happen. God wants us to be obedient. He’s not going to let us off the hook at the end if we don’t repent and turn our lives around towards Him. He’s not the one doing the condemning of our souls but the choices we make in life are doing that for us. Those choices are the ones we need to review and look at and decide, “No, I’m not going there. I’m doing what Jesus said and go and sin no more.”

We don’t need the world’s critics, what we need is Christ.

Our host today is Loni at writing Canvas

© 2010 Karen J. Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

Filling in our Flaws

“Sin crouches at our doors, looking for fault lines, searching for a point of entry into our hearts and souls. Which is why it’s so important to allow God to expose and confront the cracks in our characters.” by Joanna Weaver Having a Mary Spirit

These words from Joanna Weaver were also words used by God with Cain. He told him “But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.” Gen 4:7 (NIV) Immediately after that statement from God Cain turns to his brother Abel and says, “Hey, you want to go out into the field.” Much to Abel’s dismay it would be his last trip out into the field.

Sin is sneaky, it knows no bounds, it has no age preference. It will take anyone at anytime for any reason. We all have to be alert to the fact that sin crouches at our doors. I guess the best way to know that is to “know your enemy” as they say.

What is sin? Is it only the big stuff like mass murder, multiple rapes, or grand theft auto of anything that happens to cost over $100,000. Wrong! Sin is not only sneaky but it comes in all shapes and sizes. From big to little to small, to square, to round, to flat it doesn’t matter.

We like to try and measure sin and put it on a scale from 1 to 10 or weigh it against something else but it doesn’t work that way. Sin is anything that comes between God and us and goes against His will. A good crack for the old sin bandit to sneak in is through our fault lines, the areas in our lives where we tend to be the weakest.

Instead of leaving those flukes and flaws open for exposure to Satan’s mindless attacks we need to keep them plugged up with Jesus. Reading frequently from His word, praying and applying what the Bible has to say helps fill in the cracks. We’d all love to think we are perfect, flawless, crack free but the fact is it isn’t true.

Maybe we could safely say that we came with cracks for a reason. Yeah right? Yes, right…don’t argue with me. Think about it. Often it’s via those cracks that bring us closer to Jesus. It’s because we aren’t perfect that we were meant to need the One who is, Jesus Christ. Strive as hard as we can to find perfection it won’t happen unless we go through Jesus to try and achieve it.

Perhaps a good test for us is to stop and take a look at what kind of mortar or clay are we filling the cracks in our character with. Are we leaving them wide open for sin to enter so it doesn’t have to crouch at our door anymore or are we filling in our flaws with Jesus. Try Jesus, it leaves a much better finish than sin ever could and it’s a job that will last for all eternity.

Sorry I’m late people. Internet troubles! Talk about cracks in the system! Anyway out host today was Deborah on her blog, Chocolate And Coffee if you haven't been there already!

Thanks to God, Via Jesus

“I am the wretch the song refers to.” ~Todd Friel


Paul said it in Romans, Todd Friel repeated it, and we echo it ourselves today, “Oh wretched man that I am!” Even Webster has its own definition of what “wretched” is. It means “deeply afflicted, dejected, distressed, miserable, woeful, and poor in quality or ability. “

Perhaps the more important issue here is why we are feeling wretched. To Paul he was struggling with the fact that he was always doing what he really didn’t want to do. His flesh seemed to be stronger in many ways than his spirit.

If you take a close look at Paul and ourselves there is a difference in the way we react to this “wretched” situation. With Paul immediately after talking about his struggle with the flesh he went on to say, “Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.” Paul knew the answer to his question about who would deliver him from this body of death. It was Jesus. He knew with his mind or spirit he was serving the law of God but the flesh was leaning towards the law of sin. However, Paul knew there was hope, optimism thanks to God via Jesus.

Now let’s take a look at “ourselves.” Yes, that was the whole idea. Open your eyes come on both of them! No peeking, we want a good wide open look. When we struggle with fleshly sin and get to feeling down on ourselves, discouraged, afflicted, distressed, poor in quality or ability we often stay there. We form a pity party and expect everyone around us to join in. “Oh what a wretch I am, I’m terrible, nobody loves me, nobody cares…..” sob, sob, sob, sob and that’s where we get stuck in our sobs. Once down it can be very difficult to get back up.

Sadly enough you would almost think we like being in the wretched part of life. A part where we get a little pity, people feeling sorry for us, a place where improvement is not expected, we have an excuse for all our bad behaviors because after all look at what a wretched person we are. No, we need to have the hope that Paul did, thanks to God, via Jesus. That should be our theme in life don’t you think, “Thanks to God, via Jesus.”

It’s a given fact we all fit in that wretched man mode. You might even say we are put there to learn our way out. Now that sounds interesting doesn’t it? When we are kids learning is done out of curiosity a lot of the times. As adults learning is a part of humility. We need to want to learn our way out of those wretched moments. Learn how to be self-controlled. Learn how to fear God. Learn how to walk with God. Learn how to be dependent on Jesus.

Those wretched situations are not there for us to sit and pout in or collect enough pity to get us through to our next situation. We need to recognize what we are without God and what we can be with Him. Even with Christ in our lives we experience those “wretched” moments but it needs to be used as a time to grow not sink further into the quicksand of life.

The choice is ours whether we want to be bitter or better, sink or swim, pity or praise, and the list goes on. Yes, we all fit that “wretched” man mold but what we do it is the artwork that God is interested in. Are we going to stay or go on like Paul did? Where is our attitude? Do we know in our hearts and demonstrate in our lives that “thanks to God, via Jesus” I may not be where I want to be but I’m not where I use to be. Praise the Lord!

In Jesus, the wretched man doesn’t have to win, thanks to God!

© 2010 Karen J. Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

Stop Look and Repent

“Is it possible we could experience the joy of our salvation if we mourned

[over our sin] as if someone had died? We cannot experience joy without mourning.” by Pastor Robert Morris, from Sermon: “Those who

mourn are happy”


Steady as she goes, mate’! Before we even begin we need to find our balance here. Today’s subject is one that people seem to lose their balance over very easily. They go to the extreme one way or the other. There are those who don’t mourn or feel sorry for their sin at all. Then there’s the group who mourn too much thinking God could never forgive them for the things they have done. One side takes over the role of god and the other takes away from God’s role and His ability to forgive us no matter what the sin.

If you look out as well as inward it appears we have gone from mourning to dancing in 10 easy steps when we should still be mourning over our sins as new ones frequently appear. We seemed to have passed some unwritten law in our lives that everything is permissible. There’s no need for mourning any more. Why feel sorry for something that is so wildly accepted in our world today.

We are focused on the wrong world. We need to be looking towards maintaining our citizenship in the world with Christ in Heaven. Beating ourselves up over things we have done is never the answer either. We’ve all been there and done that since we all fall short of the glory of God thanks to sin. The purpose of mourning is to lead us to repentance not emotional abuse on ourselves or others.

Repentance is the key we need to unlock the door to a better relationship with God. Isn’t it funny how the lock on the door between us and God is on our side? No, it’s not a Ha Ha kind of funny that’s for sure. It’s a sad strange kind of funny. We are the ones standing in the way of the happiness God wants us to have through repentance. Clearing the slate makes room for that happiness. It gets rid of the luggage we like to carry around so people can feel sorry for us or we feel sorry for ourselves.

The joy we get down the path of repentance and mourning over our sin is a lasting joy that will never end. It’s a joy that carries over into eternity to that destination resort we have chosen to live at, Heaven. It’s nothing like the temporary joy we may get out of the sin we allowed in our lives and the consequences resulting from it.

We definitely need to be aware of the seeds we are planting so we can remove them via our repentance or mourning before a harvest of wrong doings begins to develop. Like the skinny person who wails and mourns over the “one” little pound they gained. They become so intent over losing it that they actually do before another comes along beside it. The overweight person rolls their eyes and thinks, “Hey, I’ve got a 100 lbs to lose, fuss over that!” We act like once we’ve crossed the imaginary line we set up for ourselves that there is no going back. It doesn’t matter if it’s weight loss, sin, our attitude, or anything else. Wrong, praise the Lord. The first sign of gaining a worldly characteristic or sin we need to stop, mourn or repent until we lose it. Chances are we may gain it back. It’s a constant battle that we can win thanks to God but its one we have to want to win.

How intent are we? Are we balanced between the two extremes? Now is the time to stop, look and repent. If you get rid of the seed, you’ll avoid the harvest that can come from it. The seed we should be after is the seed of joy. The everlasting kind manufactured in Heaven, delivered through our repentance and surrender to God.

Our host this Tuesday is Michelle over on her blog, Because I Love You wander on over there and read and share with the gang. Don’t pick up any nasty habits on the way, travel in the joy of Jesus!