Karen's Crossing~~~That Little Bit Of Light

Church service was going well. Praise and worship to my King of kings were strong and vibrant. The presence of The Lord could be felt filling the far corners of the sanctuary.

Unfortunately also present were the feelings of pain and weakness that followed me into the room. Emotions that needed dealt with that refused to stay home while I went to church.

After singing praises to God it was time for communion. As I reached for the bread and cup to participate the light reflecting from the communion juice caught my attention. Instantly there was a message there for me. The message being no matter how much light shines up at me it doesn't matter. God loves me and I got proof.

The proof being that little bit of light shining up at me. The light that says no matter how small, it carries a big torch. It has a lot to offer me as it lights my path, gives me hope and strength for tomorrow.

It doesn't matter where my cancer spreads I will always have that little bit of light shining back at me. The only light I need to see me thru. Days come and go, darkness comes and go but that can't be my focus. My focus needs to be that little bit of light shining back at me.

Communion is a time of remembrance of what Christ did for us but that light shining back at me has its own memories to give. Memories of how God has often rescued me from the dark many times. It didn't take much light to walk me out, what it took was me being willing to follow it out instead of complaining about the lighting system.

Cancer is a dark thing to face as many other chronic diseases. Such as the teenage girl back in the hospital fighting her heart failure. The parents who hurt painfully as they make arrangements for their little girls funeral who died of cancer.

We need to stay strong and not give up hope in God and that little bit of light that shines back at us. The light is still there. It may have shifted around in the cup but it never goes out. Let it capture your attention. Let it draw into your heart and always remember no matter what darkness in life we may encounter we still have that little bit of light shining back at us.

Praise the Lord!

Copyright 2015 Karen J Gillett at Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing


Sent from my iPhone

Drop and Give Me Ten, No Stop and Give Hundred

As my granddaughter and I sat chatting one evening she mentioned to me "those darn cats."  Suddenly after saying that she bolted off the couch and said she needed to do ten pushups for swearing. Evidently it was an agreement between her and someone in her local church. Every time they swore they were to drop and do ten pushups. 

As I sat and watched her I felt a huge sense of grandma pride. She was recognizing swearing in her life was wrong and her discipline was to drop and give God ten pushups in a type of "sorry" to the Lord. 

The next day as I struggled to deal with life, I might not have swore but my frustration was evident. Looking back to what my eleven year old granddaughter had done I felt I too needed to drop and give God ten in order to say I was sorry. 

Unlike my granddaughter who was able to get on the floor to do ten pushups I knew if I tried my bone cancer would object. I was certain the 911 operators would not appreciate my distress call for help off the floor after attempting pushups so I didn't even try. The wall would have done just as well to serve as my pushing off board. 

As I got ready, to maybe not drop to do my ten, I thought of my dad. After his pacemaker surgery he was using the wall to do his push-ups to try and quickly recover. Unfortunately for him doing so put him back in the hospital for irritating his surgery site. I wondered if I was willing to be that diligent to obtain my own spiritual healing, from allowing the world to get to me, by doing my own push-ups no matter what or how. 

Suddenly my plans changed again as I thought of something else. No, I didn't need to drop and give God ten, what was better was stopping long enough in life to give Him 100 praises and thanks to focus my attention to where it needed to be. The stress of the world had blocked my view of God.  My discipline was to move out of its range and do what needed to be done, focusing on the things I have been blessed with. 

So here we go. "God I am here to stop and give You 100 praises and thanks ." What a blessing it is to my heart to have such a thing to set before You today and every day. Love You Lord."

Karen

Praise and Thanks

1. Praise God for being all knowing

2. Thank you Lord for my friend Chrissy and the friendship we share

3. Praise God for being someone we can trust

4. Thank you Lord for the roof over my head

5. Praise God for lifting my head when it tends to hang low

6. Thank you Lord for my grand kids and the joy they give me

5. Praise God for being my shield of protection

6. Thank you Lord for Nycol and the gift she's been to me

7. Praise God for being the one who sustains me

8. Thank you Lord for Don and the potential he has for you God

9. Praise God for His salvation

10. Thank you Lord for my Coffee

11. Praise God His blessing is upon His people

12. Thank you Lord for my wonderful parents

13.  Praise God for relieving me in my distress

14. Thank you Lord life has its good moments we can use to strengthen us on our journey to stair step our way to heaven 

15. Praise God for Your mercy and grace

16. Thank you Lord I don't have to qualify to receive your mercy. It's free. 

17. Praise God for setting Yourself aside for the godly

18. Thank you Lord for the beauty of fresh fallen snow

19.  Praise God for hearing me when I call

20. Thank you Lord for keeping me safe when Jayleena and I did a 180 degree circle in the snow

21.  Praise God the light of Your favor falls on Your children

22. Thank you Lord for the four year extension on my life

23. Praise God for putting gladness in my life

24. Thank you Lord for my sisters

25. Praise God for being my king of kings

26. Thank you Lord I don't have to operate the throne in my life. I've tried and it never worked. 

27. Praise God who leads me

28. Thank you Lord that I am not alone. I have You always at my side 

29. Praise God for defending me

30. Thank you Lord for my church family

31. Praise God You test me to better me not to put me down

32. Thank you Lord I am allowed to fail as you pick me up to try again

33. Praise God who saves the upright in heart

34. Thank you Lord for modern medicine and indoor plumbing ;)

35. Praise God for being a just judge

36. Thank you Lord for raindrops on my eyelashes instead of tears

37. Praise God for the excellence of his name in the whole earth

38. Thank you Lord for your creations, including me

39. Praise God who ordains strength 

40. Thank you Lord I can use your strength instead of trying to find my own and fail

41. Praise God for all Your marvelous works

42. Thank you Lord I get to enjoy those works

43. Praise God you are someone I can be glad and rejoice in

44. Thank you Lord for sunny days even cloudy ones when I have you to go thru them with

45. Praise God that You will endure forever

46. Thank you Lord I can endure life because of You

47. Praise God for being a refuge for the oppressed

48. Thank you Lord for giving me a place of safety

49. Praise God you put a song in my heart

50. Thank you Lord although I can't sing well its the praises to You that counts

51. Praise God you don't forget the cry of the humble, You hear their desires

52. Thank you Lord for the memories of growing up on this ranch

53. Praise God You will not forsake those who seek You

54. Thank you Lord that when I seek you, You don't hide yourself from me. You can be found

55. Praise God the needy will not always be forgotten

56. Thank you Lord for cuddly furry friends

57. Praise God You are the helper of the fatherless 

58. Thank you Lord for being such a wonderful Father figure for us to look up to

59. Praise God You prepare our hearts

60. Thank you Lord for the quietness of the country side I am surrounded by

61. Praise God You are righteous and will always be unchanging

62. Thank you Lord with Your help I can change into the person You want me to be

63. Praise God Your words are pure and helpful to guide and teach me, You preserved them from generation to my generation

64. Thank you Lord I may be stubborn at times but I am not hopeless as long as I allow myself to be teachable

65. Praise God You deal with us bountifully 

66. Thank you Lord that all I have You have given me and blessed me

67. Praise God You take the time to look down upon us from heaven checking on us

68. Thank You Lord I am not invisible to You

69. Praise God my goodness is nothing apart from You

70. Thank you Lord for loving laughter and warm smiles

71. Praise God for being my inheritance and portion. All I need and want

72. Thank you Lord for my friends I have picked up along life's paths 

73. Praise God You maintain my lot

74. Thank you Lord for lessons learned and maturity grown

75. Praise God You instruct me in the night seasons

76. Thank you Lord I don't have to be afraid of the dark

77. Praise God You show me the path of life

78. Thank you Lord for hugs that help comfort me

79. Praise God for Your presence in my life

80. Thank you Lord for traveling thru life with me

81. Praise God for visiting me in the night and placing Your arms around me to tell me "be still Karen. I am with you"

82. Thank you Lord your light pierces the night

83. Praise God for upholding my footsteps

84. Thank you Lord that I may slip a time or two but I won't completely fall because You uphold me

85. Praise God You  show us your marvelous kindness thru Your son Jesus Christ

86. Thank you Lord for new beginnings and second chances

87. Praise God for keeping me as the apple of Your eye

88. Thank you Lord for the ability to see, hear, touch, smell and so much more

89. Praise God for the place You hide me in the shadow of Your wing

90. Thank you Lord I am able to function even in the pain of my bone cancer

91. Praise God for being my strength, refuge, fortress, deliverer and so much more I love you

92. Thank you Lord for Your companionship

93. Praise God You reward me according to my righteousness 

94. Thank you Lord for helping me obtain my righteousness thru Christ

95. Praise God You make it possible for me to leap over the walls the world puts up to try and stop me

96. Thank you Lord nothing is impossible to You

97. Praise God You light my lamp and keep it lit

98. Thank you Lord I can shine for you. That You can use a sinner such as I to help further Your kingdom

99. Praise God You make my way perfect enlarging my path so I won't slip

100. Thank you Lord for being the rock I need to stand upon to withstand life's storms. 

Oh, the list isn't complete. There is always more with God we can praise and thank Him for. 

Sent from my iPhone

Karen's Crossing~~~~~~Set to Seek

In 2 Chronicles 20:3 it talks about how Jehoshaphat feared and set himself to seek the Lord. As a result, all of Judah came together to ask help of the Lord and seek Him.

Today as I got the news that 2014 wasn't over with yet I felt a fear of what I was facing as Jehoshaphat must have felt in his situation. My year started with my medication not working, my cancer spread in my pelvis area to where I needed radiation treatment. I lost my appetite due to the treatment and lost forty pounds in an unhealthy rapid rate. A spot was found on my brain, a blood clot in my lung followed by a metastasis of my cancer to my liver.

Late in the fall finally came the arrival of the good news that my chemo medicine was finally working. Tumor markers were going down and my spirit going up. However, as much as I had hoped that 2014 had come to an end this day on the 2nd of December it hadn't. More bad news had arrived just in time to make the honorary mention list of bad news for the year.

The news was the fact that the anemia I was fighting was not chemotherapy induced. My own body out of something better to do decided to kill off its own red blood cells. Further tests are needed to be ordered and suddenly I find myself back to where I first began in a hide and seek game of trying to find the answers and match them with solutions. I would be lying if I said I wasn't afraid.

However, just like Jehoshaphat no matter how scared I might feel I need to do what he did and set myself to seek the Lord. I pray that as I do that, those around me will do the same as they ask God for help and seek Him regarding my health and their own personal need for strength.

If you think about it we have no problem setting our watch to a certain time or setting the sprinkler system to go off at a designated moment or set our minds on the new car we want. With practice it should be no problem for us to set our minds and hearts on seeking God.

At times we may encounter difficulties in some things such as the setting up of our computer or the new VCR but with great determination we continue until we figure out a way to get it done.

Well it should be equally not a problem but a priority to set ourselves to seek God. To storm proof our lives thru prayer and seeking God. Whether its easy for us to do or difficult we need to have that determination in us to see that we continue on until we have accomplished our goal of seeking God.

Too often we think its Him who is in charge of the seeking but we're wrong. We are the ones who need to seek Him out. We do so by looking past our circumstances and keeping our eyes on Him. It is by seeking God today that we are able to walk into tomorrow un-encumbered, walking in strength.

As I was told when I first got cancer whatever you do "Don't google it" it will scare you with too much information. It was a lesson the person who said it had learned the hard way and she wanted to pass it on down to me. As I spoke with my daughter for the final time at the closing of my day her words to me echoed that same lesson of "whatever you do mom, don't google it. Get some rest."

Instead of feeding my fear she wanted me to look passed what was right in front of me long enough to set myself on seeking God instead. A far better way to begin my night and a grander entrance to my new day soon to follow.

Truly it is a better way for all of us, to set ourselves on seeking God and when we do He will never cease to amaze us at what we will find in Christ.

Set on seek. That's my next move! How about you?


Sent from my iPhone

In Udder Words ~~~~~~~ X Marks the Spot

 Colossians 3:1-3 if then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 

 

 

It had to of served as some kind of target for the National Guard to use as something to aim for when practicing their drills. No matter what the purpose of the X was it did remind me of my school years when we use to put X’s on things and then say, “X marks the spot.” It was a game we would plan then but as an adult the game changed into something more to me.

 

When life’s storms were at their peak I would use the X to try and stay focused on God. At work whenever things got rough and rocky I would make an X on a piece of paper and would look at that while the politics of the office went on around me. It gave me something to focus on and to not be sucked into the negative magnetic force around me.

 

It was a trick that worked rather well at home and at work or wherever I was because it made me zero in on Jesus and thinking about things above. As the world tried to get me to focus on the negative, the bad things, the politics of the office, the bitterness at home I had a focus. A much better focus than what the world was offering me.

 

This is what the scripture in Colossians is telling us to do, to seek and stay focused. The challenge of this scripture is the fact that at times you wish they would list those “things above” so you could focus on them. In the heat of a moment, in the highlight of a dark time sometimes it can be hard to think, “Ok what are some of the things I can think of that are from above instead of what is going on down here on earth.”

 

First thing that we can think about is Jesus. He is definitely from above and is something worthy of focusing on. To prevent us from focusing on Christ this is where Satan likes to step in to interfere.  The thought of, “If Jesus cares and loves me so much then why is this happening in my life, why doesn’t He stop it. Why? Why? Why?”

 

STOP! You have just gone back to focusing on the things of the earth, the circumstances around you that are happening, the negative, the sad, and the difficult. God has put up an “X” for us to focus on, to get our minds off of the things of the world. That “X” is on His love, Jesus Christ, joy, inner peace, abundant strength, and everlasting guidance, forgiveness, grace, mercy, and life eternal in a place free of pain and suffering.

X marks the spot, but it’s up to us where we are putting that X. We can focus on the things of the world that will only tear us down or we can focus on the things from God that build us up. The one destroys, the other gives life. Which is it going to be? Where are you putting your X?

 

 

 



 

Christ, is my YET

“Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights. Habakkuk 3:17-19







Love this scripture, this one and the one in Lamentations 3 that carries the same message and sings the same tune. They both start with a list of hard times and end on a happy positive note. In the middle they are connected with a YET.






Too often in our lives we get through the first part and never get to the YET. We have our laundry list of things that have gone wrong in our lives but we stop there. In the most difficult moments in my life I found myself sitting in the middle of these two verses. I was on the first part but couldn’t seem to get to the YET. I couldn’t see beyond my laundry list of troubles. There was no, “YET.”






After several years of growing in the Lord I soon found out there was a YET for me. It was all in my attitude and my ability to look beyond the negative. An elder at the church told me once to keep my chin up and praise the Lord. As hard as it was to find a reason to praise God I searched my heart and there it was. I had found my YET.






Circumstances in life hadn’t changed I still had epilepsy, problems with seizures, issues with family members, difficulty with financial problems, and more. In the midst of my troubles Christ was sitting beside me all along. There was my first, “YET” and from there my list grew.






“Though life is not budding for me right now, there is no fruit growing in it, the vines seem dead, any crop I have tried to plant has failed, I’m not producing as I should, there are no by-products of my production in the pen or stalls……YET…..I will rejoice in the Lord. I will be joyful in my Savior Jesus Christ; rejoicing in the fact that He stands and sits beside me as I journey through life. He comforts me when I need it the most. When life seems to abandon me He never has. He dries my tears, and hears my prayers. If ever there was a shoulder to lean on His was always there. He saved me when I was in danger; He protected me when I went out on my own. When I knocked on His door He always answered. Indeed it is my Lord and Savior that enables me to tread on the heights; the heights of life, of circumstances, issues, and difficulties. I can’t praise Him enough. Christ is my YET, the thing that connects me to the positive blessings God gives me in life. ”






I love you Lord, Thanks you Christ for being my YET.

© 2012 Karen Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes

Beauty for every season

 People are often seasonal. One person likes the spring, another the summer, the next prefers the fall, and then there are always the winter folks. In every season no matter which one we prefer we can find beauty. My brother one day at our parents house, he's the one on the front deck there, said the popular tree next to the house has never looked so good. To him in the fall when the tree turns yellow that is when its has its true beauty.

No matter what season we are in we need to look for the beauty of that season. In our lives there are seasons as well. Times when things are blooming and going well. Times when things are at its best. Times when things aren't so well and everything seems to be fall apart like the leaves off the tress. Times of cold dark wintry days when there doesn't seem to be any hope for spring.

We need to look past the season and see God in each one. Look for the beauty hidden in each and focus on that. Even if the only beauty to be found is the fact that we have God at our sides walking us through these moments. We can't be like those who the minute one of their less favorite seasons comes close they start complaining. Over the years many seasons have come and gone and they will continue that way, how we live our lives thru these seasons makes a difference.

Best thing to do is to take a look, take a peak, and find God wherever your're at and allow him to walk you through each season of your life.

© 2011 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

Not Too Busy

“Martha was busy for Jesus, and that left her too busy to be with Jesus.” by ~ Jon Walker Growing with Purpose: Connecting with God Every Day

Interesting point Jon makes. You read it and your head kind of twirls for a few minutes, “she was busy for Jesus but that left her too busy to be with Jesus.” That doesn’t make sense! Once we let our twirling brain waves settle down we can see what he says is true.

In fact it’s so common we do it not only to Jesus but to our families, friends, as well as ourselves. We busy ourselves with activities in the name of “doing it for our family, for Jesus, for others,” then we find ourselves too busy to be WITH them.

Martha may have had her heart in the right place but her focus was all wrong. She skipped what was most important in trade for what she thought was the most significant thing to do. In the process of it all she couldn’t understand why Mary didn’t have the same priority list.

What Martha was doing wasn’t wrong until she made it that way by overlooking something of greater value, time with Jesus instead of just time FOR Jesus. It didn’t stop there she took her mistake even further when she got after Mary for not following her suit.

It’s an awesome privilege to be able to serve the Lord but we need to remember there is something even greater that can not be bypassed and that is time WITH Jesus. Time spent in His word, sitting at the foot of the cross, praying, praising, and loving on the One who loves us.

Some where along the line Satan threw us a lie we swallowed hook line and sinker. The lie that keeping busy and bustling around for Jesus, our families, and friends shows them we care. We take it out like a laundry list and shake it out to hang on the clothesline for all to see everything we have done. We get off balance in what we need to be doing.

Instead of bypassing the cross on the way to the soup kitchen we need to stop first and give Christ the first fruits of our time and efforts by sitting down with Him on a day to day basis. We should never be too busy to stop in with Jesus. After that then by all means get to the soup kitchen and help out those in need.

A friend of mine who is a shut-in in many ways and doesn’t get out much finds it interesting when people tell her whenever they happen to be driving by her house they honked or “think of her.” They don’t stop in and visit, they figure a drive-by honking or thought is good enough. We often treat Jesus the same way. We drive by Him at the cross long enough to honk or maybe “think of Him” but we don’t take the time to stop and visit with Him. We think the busy efforts of serving Him at the local church says it all but it doesn’t.

Don’t be so busy serving Jesus that you bypass the very One you so love to serve. Spend time with Jesus and you will see your service to Him and for Him flourish! Our lives need to reflect that we are not too busy to spend time with Jesus and those we care about the most.


© 2009 Karen J. Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

Stop to Start

What would happen if we stopped lamenting about the fifty things we can’t control and focused our attention on the fifty thousand things we can control? What would happen if we stopped whining about things we have the power to change and finally took charge of our lives and changed them? What would happen if we stopped borrowing sorrow from tomorrow? If we got in the habit of asking ourselves, “What’s on my plate today?”~Chocolatherapy: Satisfying the Deepest Cravings of Your Inner Chick by Karen Scalf Linamen


What would happen? Hummmm….what would happen???? I know what happened once when I had a licensed marriage counselor tell me that I needed to work on….ME! What kind of a quack did I find in the yellow pages??? Work on me? I wasn’t the problem, HE was! Needless to say I didn’t go back to the counselor for two years. It took me that long to realize that it was me that I needed to work on.

I was the one guilty of trying to control what I couldn’t control. I was the one fighting to change someone else instead of working on myself. I was the one stocking up sorrow from tomorrow and the next day and the next day in order to justify my behavior this day. I was the one alright.

It didn’t work. Fancy that. Those were probably the words that Eve mumbled to Adam outside the garden gate, “it didn’t work Adam dearest.” What about Jonah sitting in the belly of the whale, “my, my, my, my plan didn’t work.” Peter as he plucked the sea weed out of his wet hair, “burrrrrr, that sure didn’t work.”

We are a strange species that’s for sure. We like to live life on the edge. It keeps us from looking at our own lives when we think we have a clear view of everyone else’s. Satan has us believing it’s easier to change someone else than ourselves as if it was our patriotic duty to do so.

It’s time to readjust the camera lens and get focused on the right things. Such as the things we can control and have the power to change. We definitely need to stop. Stop the lamenting, stop the whining, stop the borrowing and start instead. Start the process of change within our power to do so through Jesus Christ. Starting instead of stopping to gaze our eyes and hearts on the blessings we have instead of mourning over the ones we feel are missing.

As we would never go through a garden and pick the weeds out and put them in a vase on the table to show off we shouldn’t be doing this in our spiritual lives either. Why go through life picking the sorrows to display and leave the flowers of God’s blessings behind. It doesn’t make sense.

Unfortunately we get our stop and start’s backwards. We figure in our hearts as soon as God stops the hard stuff then we can start praising. We’ll stop lamenting only after He starts to bless us, giving us what we want. I can’t tell you how much Kleenex I have wasted over the years lamenting and whining because I didn’t think I had anything to rejoice and praise God over. How in the world could I be thankful for anything? One glance at my life and you could see why I was excused from having to obey the scripture about, “being thankful in all circumstances.” Shhhhhhhh…..I hear something…….quietly in the background I can hear a record player playing….”My heart bleeds for you!”……… Yep I am one of those strange species.

God has never promised us a life free from trials, hard times, and struggles. What He gives us is the ability to travel through these moments in our lives. It shouldn’t have to include a life time supply of Kleenex too because we choose to lament and whine along the way. We need to use our tears to seek God, the one that counts each tear, who will one day wipe them all away. Praise the Lord.

As Capital One asks in their commercial “What’s in your wallet?” We need to ask ourselves, “What’s on our plate today?” If it’s not filled with Jesus we need to scrap off in the garbage disposal what doesn’t belong and make room for what belongs. Things such as praise, trust, faith, peace, and joy thanks to the dryer of our tears not the source of them.

I love you Jesus!


Our host today is Patricia over at Typing One-Handed get on over there and share with the gang. If you stub your toe along the way don’t cry over it, you still have 9 other ones that aren’t hurting. Unless you’re one of those people who look like you have two toes coming out of the same hole then maybe you only have 7 others not hurting. Just teasing!

Karen's Crossing: "Another catchy saying"

"It’s not what happens sometimes that’s important it’s what we do after it happens"

In spite of my attitude in between my moments of selfishness I always knew in my heart that God didn’t allow me to have epilepsy as if He had some quota to fill of a certain number of epileptics in the world. No, I got what I had because of kids goofing around on a school bus. One incident had led to another and there I was on a darken road that appeared to have no light at the end.

Truth be known I knew what God was watching for. He was looking at how I was handling this new found disease in my life, which in the beginning was not well. The initial news of having epilepsy didn’t affect me it was when I was fired from my job due to seizures and later told by a doctor I was to never get pregnant because of the medication I was taking. It was then that I felt like I was a victim of an all-out-assault on my life. Every lightning bolt from the sky seemed to be aimed right at me and dead on target every time. Little did I know I was the one holding up the lightning rod attracting these attacks from Satan because of my “pity me” attitude packed firmly around bitterness and anger.

Praise the Lord this saying fell into my life at the right moment to knock a little sense in to me sending the “pity me” mode out. I had epilepsy and there wasn’t enough pity and anger and bitterness I could create to change that. The important thing was what I was going to do with my situation. Let it rule me or me rule over it by having the right attitude and hanging on to Jesus for guidance.

It doesn’t matter if we have a health condition, financial problem, marital issues, or anything else the important factor is how we handle the situations we find ourselves in. A lot of these things come upon us in life uninvited, out of our control, but the one thing we do have control over is how we react to them and what we do with them after they show up on our doorstep.

The focus on the problem creates pity parties. The focus Jesus creates a closer walk with Him and a better journey with a stronger outcome. Walking with Jesus didn’t take away my epilepsy. It took away a bigger more deadly disease of self pity.

We need to pray to Jesus daily to get rid of the excess baggage we like to pack such as our bad attitudes, impatience, and pity modes in order to journey with Jesus through trust, faith, and looking forward to a better future with Him. He’s there to listen, He does care.

Jesus. Don’t leave home without Him!

The Object of our Focus

September 2, 2008 IOW

“The key to either great purpose or great destruction lies in where we choose to sustain our focus. Knowing this fact should move us to jealously guard our intimacy with the Lord.” by Bill Johnson - Sr. Pastor, Bethel Church - Redding, CA (from “Strengthen Yourself in the Lord,”)

It’s hard to believe there is such a close line between great purpose and destruction. The line according to Bill Johnson is where we choose to maintain our focus. Are we going to look towards being successful or are we always going to look as if our life and efforts are nothing but a great destruction of worthless time and energy.

In thinking about focus my mind goes back to the classical example of Peter and the situation he found himself in on the lake one evening in Matthew 14:25-33. Peter started out on the right foot (ha ha, no pun intended) but he lost his focus. Catching sight of Jesus walking on the water Peter told him, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” Immediately Jesus told him, “Come.” I wish I could have seen the expression on Peter’s face just then. In spite of what may have stirred inside of him you don’t read where he replied or remarked, “Come? Now? Oh you mean me? Let me get the fish off my fishing line first. Did He really say, come!” No, Peter got out of the boat and proceeded to walk on the water to Jesus.

As usual what caught Peter’s attention or focus were the wind and the waves of the roaring sea. Soon it didn’t take him long to begin to sink crying out, “Lord save me!” Sound familiar? It should. We seem to start out on the right foot but then we get away from what our original focus started out to be, walking to Jesus. Soon we find Jesus stretching out His hand catching us and He did Peter saying, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”

That very question from Jesus leads us to another classical thing, the question of, “why?” Why do we allow ourselves to lose our focus? Why do we doubt when we know better. Why do we give permission to our emotions, circumstances, doubt, frustration, sin, foolishness, and pride to take us away from where we need to be, closer to Christ? That million dollar question may stay an unanswered classical question forever.

Like a good quarterback in a football game we can’t focus on the things that are coming at us. To be effective we need to look out beyond all that to Jesus and where we choose to put our center of attention. Satan will always try to get us to lose our focus by walking in front of the camera of our life making the picture temporarily blurry. However if we allow these moments to pass the picture becomes clear once again.

Perhaps what we need to do is to take ourselves off “automatic focus” and put it strictly on focusing on God, the object of our focus. When we do that, as Satan or other things in this life step in front of the picture, we don’t robotically change focus while our vision of Christ goes blurry.

No, we definitely need to jealousy guard our close relationship with the Lord. Standing firm in our convictions that because we have Christ on our side we can have successes we never dreamed of having. The temporary setbacks we run across should only serve as momentums to try even harder. The choice once again falls on us and where we place our heart and the control knobs of our lives. What are we striving for, Satan’s grin or God’s smile? The object of our focus will tell us which we have chosen.


Our host today is Michelle over at her site at Because I Love You. Hobble on over there and read and share with others on today’s quote. In the meantime let us join our voices of prayer together and pray for Michelle's son Chaz who was in a serious accident recently.