Sticky Notes from God~~~~~~ Full Service Deal

“Lord wash us with the water of your word”

Too often when we get into the Bible we go for a quick snack, a sponge bath, a first aid kit, and touch of partial truths to suit itching ears. In other words we get out of it exactly what efforts we put in to it. The dust that settled on our Bibles from lack of use will only fly off to settle in our hearts if that’s all we are willing to do.

 

If we go for a snack it’s exactly what we’ll get as we will never get the benefit of a full meal deal because we chose to grab something on the run. A bite here and there will never give us the nourishment we need as opposed to really feeding off and digesting what God has to say.

 

Stopping by to put a Band-Aid over our wounds may help for a little while but it will never give us the healing we require for deeply infected wounds. We don’t need something to hide our wounds. We need the Great Physician and Lord to heal us from within. Someone who knows about wound care that will heal us to where we need to be.

 

Dipping into God’s word for a quick sponge bath is like splashing water over our hands without the soap in our rush to move on. It doesn’t do the job. In order to be cleansed we need to get into God’s word like a full service bath and soak in it long enough to wash away the dirt of sin.

 

Digging out partial truths wanting to hear strictly the things our ears are willing to listen to will only get us further into the pits we are digging for ourselves. Indeed we like to read in God’s word that we are loved and that whoever believes will have everlasting life but we ignore the warnings of those doomed for the lake of fire, the consequences of disobedience, and the importance of being like Christ. We think it’s good enough to read where we are forgiven but we don’t want to hear about the part that tells us we are to forgive others first.

 

It’s time to stop playing around and start to go for the full service deal and get serious about getting our spiritual lives into shape. Standing before the Lord on judgment day with our spiritual pretend mommy at our side licking her finger so she can rub off the dirt on our face so we can pass inspection isn’t going to work. It will never pass the scrutiny of God’s judgment when He looks into our motives, actions, attitudes, laziness, and choices of our life on earth.

 

No, what we need now is the full service deal of the benefit of getting into God’s word in order to be cleansed, fed, guided, and restored.

 

© 2013 Karen J. Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

In Udder Words ~~~~ Pay Attention!

De 28:13 If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom.

Just like the good old school days at the top of every class could be found the kids who paid attention and carefully followed what they were told to do. Their undivided attention and ability to properly follow put them ahead in class as well as in their lives. There was no other direction to go but up.

The same holds true for Christians. First, on the list is paying attention. In order to get anyone to listen and learn you first bust have their attention. Attention being a two way street. One must have the ability to get someone's attention while the other must want to pay attention. God most certainly has been able to get our attention the rest is up to us.

He's given us his commands His word to follow, we hold the instructions to our lives right in our hand. Holding it enough, we must pay attention to what it says and thus follow. What a lovely rewarding promise He gives to those who do as He says. He says if you do this you'll always (not sometimes) be at the top and never (not sometimes) at the bottom.

If you think about it, nobody in their right mind wants to be at the bottom. We want to achieve and succeed. God gives us that ability, that opportunity and the rest is up to us. How much are you paying attention to what God has to say?

© 2012 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

Source of Strength

There are several ways in which we can turn to find the strength needed to cope with life. Some people use beer, others prefer candy, others use money, and some turn to the Bible for strength. If you look at the most common choices used to find strength three out of the four items eventually run out. Sooner or later they are gone.  The only one that does not run out is the strength received from the Bible.

 

It’s important to know that God doesn’t need our strength to take care of us, He needs us to trust in His strength. The strength found in His word and the promises He gives us. The promise of never leaving nor forsaking us. The promise that I can do all things thru Christ who strengthens me. The promise that greater is He (God) that is in me, than he that is in the world (Satan). The promise that He who watches over us will never sleep nor slumber and the list goes on and on.

 

We have no problem buying an energy drink because we think it will last longer than a regular drink then why not pick the source of strength that will last the longest too. Why choose something that will eventually run out when we can have a source of strength that will last forever. God’s word has been around since the beginning of time. It has helped a great deal of people over the years and it hasn’t become weak in its effectiveness.

So which source of strength is best? The kind that runs out or the kind that lasts forever, I choose the kind that has been proven to last forever and ever. I’ve tried the money kind of strength, shopping to find comfort when I was upset, it ran out. I’ve tried the candy form of strength to give me the lift I needed, it ran out. I haven’t tried the alcohol kind of strength but I can bet when I tip the bottle for the last time it will eventually come up dry and so will the strength I was seeking.

 

God’s word is the way in which we need to go; the true source of a lasting strength.

© 2012 Karen Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

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.

Now not Later

I want people to fill their minds with passages of Scripture while they are well and strong, that they may have sure help in the day of need. I want them to be diligent in studying their Bibles, and becoming familiar with their contents, in order that the grand old Book may stand by them and talk with them when all earthly friends fail. From the bottom of my heart, I pity that person who never reads their Bible. I wonder how they expect to draw their consolation in their time of need. ~ J.C. Ryle





Just the other day at work the subject in the break room went from puppies to people. Judging from how the conversation went from there we should have stayed on the subject of puppies. We got to talking about how strange, stubborn, and stupid people can be. We talked about how people wait till they have lung cancer before they quit smoking, or have a heart attack before they decide to lose weight, or wait till the divorce papers are filed before they decide they needed to do something about their marriage.


We treat the scriptures the same way. We wait for some tragedy to come along in our lives before we dust off our Bible and dig into it for the strength, comfort, and the guidance we are seeking. We like to put things off till “later” instead of dealing with it “now.”


Just recently I told my granddaughter the whole idea of growing up is to learn self-discipline so when you are on your own you can take over where your mom left off. If she can get that concept in her head she’ll be way ahead of a lot of adults. We need to learn the art of self-disciplining ourselves to read our Bible more frequently than we do. To treat it more as an owner’s manual, guide book, daily companion, or a love letter from someone we hold dear to us. Instead of a history book we look at only when we are trying to pass a test.


It would do us all well to learn how to force feed ourselves the spiritual nutrition we get from reading and studying our Bibles. We have no problem most of the time feeding ourselves physically. Boy when we are hungry nothing stands in the way of our desire to find something to eat. Trust me, go to a donut stand and see how well you survive people cutting in line to make sure someone else doesn’t get that one donut they have their eye on up on the shelf third row to the right! That’s where I taught all my grandkids the art of self-defense; just teasing, sort of. It was more the lesson on good manners.


We need that kind of hunger or enthusiasm when it comes to God’s word. Daily we should crave it. Frequently we should feed upon it. Indefinitely we should store it in our hearts. The Bible is our armory full of swords to win the spiritual war everyone on earth faces. It’s the place where we go to get dressed for Heaven.


Instead of burying our Bibles on the bookshelf to the point we can’t find it, let us bury it in our hearts where it was meant to be stored. We should never wait for the next tragedy or big event to come along before we decide to do something about it spiritually and frantically scramble through God’s word.

What good is a bullet proof vest for a police officer who decides to put it on after he goes in on his big drug bust? Now not later is the time to dive into God’s word and prepare ourselves for the next moment in our life. This, in all honesty, by now is already here as our future is just one second away so get into God’s word and get dressed and ready for it.

I said, “now” not “later!” Hum……I sound like my mom. God bless you mom! I love Jesus!

© 2012 Karen Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes

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

Filled to The Brim

God is looking for F.A.T. disciples, disciples that are faithful, available, and teachable. We can’t teach others what we don’t know ourselves.   Anonymous   

When I look at myself in a mirror I can instantly say that God has Himself a “fat” disciple. The extra chin on my face shows it, the spare tire around my belly displays it, and the wing expansion in my upper arms verifies it. Yep, I’m a fat Christian. Nice try, Karen but that isn’t what we are talking about here.


What we are talking about here is the opposite of a being a physically fat person. It takes looking at something more reflective than a mirror and that is the image of Christ. Only when we look intensely at Jesus and the example He set for us to follow can we truly find out if we are as faithful as we need to be, available as we ought to be, as well as teachable?


We can lie about our weight all we want but it still shows. Years ago when I renewed my driver’s license the lady at DMV asked me if everything on my license was current. “Well of course,” I told her. I hadn’t moved so everything was the same as before. Looking one more time at my license then looking up at me she said, “What about the weight?” Okay maybe that part had changed. It was obvious I wasn’t the skinny girl I once was. To me I couldn’t see what it mattered to her if I was accurate to the pound on my weight or not. It really didn’t matter, that wasn’t the point. The point was the fact that it showed.

We can lie all we want about whether or not we are all we should be for God but eventually the truth will show. The first person we need to be honest with is ourselves. Can we honestly say our hearts reflect it, our actions verify it, and our attitudes display it?


It may not have mattered to the DMV lady but it matters to God if we are being the F.A.T. disciples we should be. God needs us to be faithful so He can count on us thru the thick and thin of life. He requires us to be available. What good is a disciple if they are never available to do the work they were given to do. Last but not least God needs us to be teachable. Too often we think we know it all and therefore we don’t need to listen to what others have to say including God. We need to be able to learn. Learn new things, learn from our mistakes, and gain a knowledge that can be passed along to the next generation.


If you think about it if we would consume spiritual food like we do physical food we would be the F.A.T. disciples the Lord is looking for. We can always manage to find a way to eat when we are hungry and even when we aren’t hungry but we don’t do that with our spiritual food. We set aside some quiet time for the Lord and reading the Bible but soon it gets crowded out of the refrigerator of our lives and we wind up eating off the junk food things of life we don’t need.


Although very few people make it their goal in life to be physically overweight we need to make it our goal to be plump for Jesus. People who intentionally fill themselves up on the spiritual food found in God’s word in order to be the Faithful, Available, Teachable disciples we ought to be. Disciples, who are filled to the brim with the Holy Spirit, filled to the rim with good spiritual eating.

Happy Spiritual Eating!

© 2011 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing