Happy Birthday Jesus

What a wonderful time of the year it is when we get to celebrate the birth of our glorious Savior Jesus Christ. You can't help but marvel over the fact that He left a throne in Heaven to be born here on earth not to receive gifts but to deliver one, our salvation.

The King of kings didn't need the help of the postal system, UPS, Amazon, google, Bing or anything else to deliver what He had to give us. All He needed was a humble couple and a manger full of straw and future hearts willing to accept what He has to offer.

An offer that comes with something good for all year around not just for a day. An offer stamped with the approval of Heaven waiting for us to collect. A door to Heaven, a passage way through the stars, our own manger surrounded by saints rejoicing and angels proclaiming the joy of our King.

The Christmas we have made it out to be can be hectic, a time of loneliness, pain, a hassle we can't wait to get passed. Instead of searching for the Christ child we are more in search for bargains, ways to get things done, how many minutes does it take to cook a turkey, and how soon to decorate and how quickly those decorations should come down. We pick up on the political correction of it but miss what Christmas should mean to us.

It is a gift not to be given but one to be received. In 2010 when I was diagnosed with cancer on the 13th of December it changed our whole Christmas. Instead of a tree being lit up it was my scans that revealed me lighting up like a Christmas tree where all the cancer spots were in my body. Soon money we had set aside for presents, food, and things was used for medicine, tests, biopsies, and such. It felt as if a tragedy had caused us to miss Christmas.

Shame on me to think or feel such a thing knowing what Christmas is all about. I hadn't missed Christmas. Life hadn't cancelled the event. No storm big enough could close the doors to the stable where Christ was born.

I wasn't forgotten, I was remembered. I wasn't alone, I had a traveling companion Jesus Christ that was walking my family and I through a dark time. Four years later He is still there walking along beside me. No longer a babe in a manger but a King at the throne of my heart.

The real tragedy is when we don't accept His gift by not allowing Him into our lives. Leaving Him merely as a babe in a manger with no other purpose in our lives but to give us an excuse to shop, travel, and eat.

It may be Happy Birthday Jesus but its also Blessed salvation for us if we would only accept His invitation and invite Him into our hearts, actions, choices, attitude, and every other area of our lives.

Love you Jesus. Happy Birthday King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

The Broken Fence

This Easter made me think of a writing I did fourteen years ago about the old rugged cross verses our broken half-mended fences referred to as "our lives.". Here is that writing, along with a picture of an old gate my dad tried to mend the best he could using whatever he could find to do it. Our lives are represented by that old broken fence in need of repair, Christ is the carpenter sent not only to repair it but make it new. 

The Broken Fence

 

It's funny how old things can take on new meanings at any given time.  Like the time I was asked to make the props for our annual Easter play at the church. What an honor it was to be asked, as genuine excitement flooded over me at the chance to once more serve my Lord. My assignment was the Garden of Gethsemane on one half of the stage and an alley on the other. The director wanted a rock for Jesus and a garbage can for the bum in the play but my imagination was unable to stop there.

 

Picket fences made out of old weather beaten wood would look nice but what more could I add to them I pondered. Talking to my sister and mother they came up with the excellent idea that sent my inventiveness into full sing. They told me some grape vines and bunches of grapes to decorate the fences would be very symbolic and I agreed. The plan was to build 3to 4 small fences about 30 inches wide. Two of the fences had been built before the first play rehearsal. At the rehearsal as I watched the bum in the play act out his part I had an idea of making the picket fence on his side of the stage a broken down looking one.

 

Going home that evening I began working on the broken fence. The more I labored the more real it became to me, for that broken fence not only represented the bum in the Easter play but it illustrated me as well.  Just about finished with the fence I took notice of the song that was playing on the CD player I had going. It was Carman singing "The Old Rugged Cross." What a well loved song through many a generations since 1913, one that symbolizes so well Jesus and what He did for us.

 

It was at that moment that the Lord caught my attention as He spoke to me through the familiar words. I felt exhilarated as I saw that song symbolizing something else. A vision formed in my mind of how God looks at our old rugged fences as we look to the old rugged cross. As the song played through my imagination translated these well-known words into words Jesus spoke in His heart to me that first Easter when He died on the cross for my sins and for the sins of all others…

 

 

"On a hill not that far away I see an old rugged fence,

The emblem of suff'ring and pain;

Oh how I love that old fence, to Me it's the dearest and best

For it was for a world of lost sinners I was slain.

O that old rugged fence, may be despised by the world,

But it has a wondrous attraction to me;

After all, as the dear Lamb of God

I left my glory above to bear it on dark Calvary.

In that old rugged fence, so stained by the world,

Is a wondrous beauty to Me;

For 'twas because of that old fence that I suffered and died,

To pardon and sanctify it.

 

CHORUS: So I'll cherish that old rugged fence,

Till it's trophies at last it will lay down;

I will cling to the old rugged fence,

As I'm waiting to exchange it some day for a crown."

 

Love,

 

Jesus

 

Wow, that last line really did it as I thought about Christ waiting in Heaven for me to exchange my old rugged fence, "my life" for a crown made just for me. It doesn't matter how rugged the fence, how many the flaws, how nice the paint job, how weather beaten by the world. Christ sees past our fences into our hearts where His cross should be firmly planted.  Realizing that my fence in life could never compare to the "Old Rugged Cross" I began to ponder what it represented. Truly it illustrated Christ's love for us that He came here to die for sinner's like me. The suffering that Christ went through for me could never be compared either to the minor flaws in my "fence" that I might come across.

 

Memories of the times Jesus has come along to help me repair my fence came to mind. The nails I was trying to use just wouldn't hold, for Him it only took 4, one in each hand and foot. Quietly as I thought about those times I began to pray….

 

"Dear Heavenly Father thank you so much for being there to help me with my old broken fence. Through out my life You have sent many people down my road that have been willing to stop and help put up a board or two that may have fallen. It's a comfort to know that no matter how rugged it looks, how many boards are missing, how poor the repairs, how bad the paint job, you will see it as a wondrous attraction with beauty. Forgive me Father for the times in my life that I have tried to fix my own fence with nails that just wouldn't hold. May I adjust my focus not to the broken fence but the place you are preparing for me. A place of beauty that none can compare. I love you Father God, I'm forever grateful Lord that You allowed me to come to You just as I was. I didn't need to stop and repair my fence, if I had I'd probably still be trying to fix it. I never would have been able to get ready on my own. Thank you for loving me so much that I didn't need a perfect fence for You to come into the yard of my life, all I needed was Your cross. You're the greatest Father God, I love you!!"

 

"Do not let our hearts be troubled, Trust in God, trust also in Me. In My Father's house are many rooms, if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am."  John 14:1-3 (NIV)

 

 

© 2000 Karen J. Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

Sent from my iPhone

In Udder Words~~~~~~~~Clean Hands and a Pure Heart

Psalm 24:3-5 Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

 

In this passage a question was asked, “Who may ascend to stand in God’s holy place?” The answer given was direct and to the point. Those with clean hands and a pure heart who haven’t lifted their soul to an idol or lied basically will be the ones. In other words it’s important we aren’t caught with dirty hands or a heart that is not pure.

 

As a child growing up one of the requirements before eating a meal we needed to wash our hands first. Living on a ranch and being outdoors all the time it was obvious our hands were in need of cleaning first before eating. The slobber of the horse, the smell of the pigs, and the mud from the pond all needed to go. A quick run over with the bar of soap and the job was done and it was meal time! Luckily we didn’t have to stop and work on purifying our hearts first as well each time. If that was true I don’t think we ever would have been able to eat.

 

Because of the rules of mom, dad, and their parents before them we understand why we need to clean our hands before we eat or wash them after we do something like going to the bathroom. It’s just good hygiene that is necessary to prevent the creation of an illness and the spreading of various diseases. Too bad this isn’t more obvious to people in regards to their spiritual lives. Is it the fault of our parents and their parents before them for not passing that information along? In some ways yes and other ways no. We need to take responsibility for our own cleanliness.

 

Indeed we have failed to emphasis the importance of clean spiritual hands in our quest for good spiritual hygiene. Just like mom wasn’t going to let us eat with dirty hands God isn’t going to let us ascend into the hill of the Lord with dirty hands either.

 

At the door of our heart God has placed a wash basin for us to use to cleanse our hands and purify our hearts all in one easy step. The step of accepting Jesus into our lives and living obediently to His standards, His house rules, His word. He gives us the “how to,” the bar of soap needed to get cleaned up but the rest is up to us to do.

 

Daily it’s up to us to cleanse our hands and purify our hearts by asking the Lord for forgiveness for the things we have done against His will. To repent and turn our lives around to follow Him wholly instead of the idols we erected to satisfy us until we make up our minds what we want in life. Instead of dirtying our hands with the lies we tell and the poor choices we make we need to wash our hands of these things.

 

As mom would often have to check our hands to make sure they were totally clean God will be checking our hands at the door of Heaven to see if they are clean as well. The slobber of our addictions to alcohol, drugs, sex, money, food, and such has to go. The smell of the aroma of our bad attitude has to go. The mud from the sins we committed large or small has to be washed off first.

It’s best to be cleansed now instead of just before the next meal because we don’t know when Christ will be returning. I said we don’t know “when” He will be returning but the fact of the matter is He will be here again and we need to be ready.

Don’t be caught with dirty hands. Idols, things that stand between us and God don’t save us. It’s God who is the Lord of our salvation. It’s important we clean up and look our spiritual best for His next and final arrival. Forever ready on the spot to show what He already should be seeing in us, clean hands and a pure heart.

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