Losing and Looking

After brushing my teeth before getting ready to go somewhere the other day, I heard something hit the bathroom floor just about the same time that I put my toothbrush back in its holder. Couldn't imagine what it was but knew it was something small and metallic by the sound it made.  Looking down at the floor beside the cabinet, I saw one of my small gold earrings. I'm sure I had lain them on the same shelf as the toothbrush and toothpaste were on and most likely brushed them off with the sleeve of my housecoat when I replaced my toothbrush.  

I picked up the lone earring that I saw and started looking for the other one. Where was it? I leaned over and strained my eyes trying to see it. It should have been near the other one I thought!  Then I did what I really don't like to do because it's so hard for me nowadays to get back up....I got down on my knees!  From the kneeling position it was easy to see the other gold earring. It was up under the lip of the cabinet out of sight until I was down on my knees.

Almost immediately I thought about a spiritual application to what had just happened. There have been times in my life when I am just going along doing my own thing and then I notice that something is missing from my spiritual life.  So maybe I decide that doing a little more here and there for the Lord will bring back whatever it is that seems to be missing.  Most times that doesn't really help a lot.  It's usually not until I get on my knees in prayer and get back into fellowship with God that I ''find'' what was missing in my life.

Not a big revelation I know but I just thought that maybe you could identify with this same thing in your life.

God bless you!

Marilyn

Too Busy To Get Cleaned Up ?

 

(Embarrassed to show you this picture! But it's cleaned up now!! See update at bottom.)

Last night the temperature dropped to the mid-fifties.  A drastic change to what it's been at night for weeks or months now.  We definitely didn't need the A/C.  Or even the ceiling fan which has been constantly humming us to sleep in the bedroom all summer long.

This morning I was in our room drying my hair and just happened to look up at the unmoving ceiling fan.  Oh. My. Goodness.  What an unexpected sight I saw!  Dust literally hanging from each blade of the fan!  I could hardly believe that it had gotten so dirty without my even realizing it!  I have often glanced up at the fan as it made its convolutions day in and day out but never once was able to see the dust with the fan moving.  Only when it came to a total stand-still did the dirt show up.

I'm afraid....very afraid....that my life is a lot like the ceiling fan in our bedroom!  I've been busy all summer.  Going and doing.  Gardening and preserving. Going to church, working, and visiting friends. Good things every one of them. But the point is...I've been BUSY!  Too busy to just completely stop and have some time alone with Jesus!  I need to do that so I can see where the ''dust'' has built up in my life! I don't need to just slow down but instead completely stop for a while!  Sit at the feet of Jesus like Mary did.( Luke 19:39 "And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word.")  And let Him show me where I need to get the cobwebs out of my life.  Let Him clean me up through the "washing of water by the word"...when I search the scriptures for instruction. (Ephesians 5:26)

I have learned a couple of lessons today.  Obviously, I need to turn my ceiling fan off more often to check for dust.  And most importantly, that I need to stop all my busyness more often to give God an opportunity to clean me up so I can be a better worker in His Kingdom.

Here's the ''after'' picture of my ceiling fan.  I'll feel so much better now knowing it's clean!

And in the meantime....I'm gonna enjoy this cool, crisp air that's blowing through my open windows this beautiful sunny afternoon!

God bless you!

Marilyn

A Lesson From the Peach

As I walked from the barn past the old peach tree, I noticed that most of the peaches had fallen to the ground already.  Such a shame I thought.  What a waste.  I looked at them and decided that several of them looked perfect even though they were on the ground.  So I took a "shirt-tail" of them into the house with me and deposited them in the kitchen sink in some cool water.  (Y'all know what that means don't you?  A "shirt-tail" measure is just the amount of something you can carry in the bottom of your shirt with it folded up.)

As I began to peel and slice the peaches I noticed something.  All of them had flaws. Some more than others but still and yet ALL of them were flawed.  My husband didn't poison them this year to keep the bugs from eating on them so they were left to nature and therefore the reason for all the bad spots!

One peach in particular looked perfect. Pale pinkish blush over milky white skin.  I thought to myself, "Here's one the bugs missed!" But when I cut into the peach I saw how mistaken I was! It was rotten to the core with a big ole white worm eating away near the peach pit! Disgusting! It had looked so good on the outside! And had I never cut it open I would have never known about that worm eating away the heart of the peach. That is, until it just collapsed from the inside later on!

Isn't that the way it is with people too? We may look good on the outside but only God can see what's going on deep in our hearts.  Sometimes we are like the Pharisee who looked at the tax collector beating on his chest asking God to forgive him for being a sinner and say, "God, I'm so glad I'm not a sinner like that man!" In regard to this, Jesus said, "I tell you, this man (tax collector) went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted."

We need to be more concerned with what's going on deep within our spirit rather than trying to impress others with our outward appearance or our Pharisaical attitudes. What God said to the prophet Samuel is just as true today as it was then: "for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart." 1 Samuel 16:7

Are we whole?  Or are we rotten? Or are we wholly rotten?  Makes me want to take a better look at myself and see if my outward appearance agrees with my inner convictions.

By the way...I was able to salvage enough peaches for a small bowl full.  They are yummy on ice cream.  If the damage to the peach was small, I was still able to cut off the bad and use the good that was left. There were a few that were, as I said earlier, ''rotten to the core'' and had to be tossed.  I want God to cut out the bad from my heart so that I can still be used by him.

God bless you!

Marilyn

When the Sun Gets in Your Eyes

Yesterday morning while walking by a window, I was surprised to suddenly be almost blinded by the bright morning sun! The mini-blinds were still in the closed position and I think that's one reason the bright sunshine was so startling!  I was not expecting it!

My first reaction was to squint my eyes and turn away. It hurt to look at the bright light!  My next reaction was to be happy that the black rain clouds had parted to let the sun shine through!

I have pretty much those same reactions in my spiritual life sometimes. When I stop praying and reading the Bible as I should and let the darkness of the world creep into my life (in other words, just as my blinds were in the closed position, so is my mind sometimes) and then I see or hear a word from God, I quickly squint and turn away! It hurts my spiritual eyes to look at God (who is light according to 1 John 1:5..."This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.") when I've been in spiritual darkness.  The reason for this is found in John 3:20..."For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved."

But because I'm a child of God, I don't want to stay in darkness so my next gut reaction to God's light is the same as when I saw the sun streaming in the window...happiness and relief that the darkness had parted and the light of God had once again reproved me of my sins and helped me to regain the joy that darkness always destroys. Then instead of trying to get away from the light, I go toward it!

"Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." John 8:12

Thank goodness Jesus won't let his children run off and hide in the darkness for very long at a time. And there's coming a day for us Christians when there will be no more darkness and no more night. John tells us in Revelation 21:23, "And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it; for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof."

Looking forward to spending an eternity in the light of the Lamb!

Marilyn

From Mourning to Joy...It IS Possible!

(A small 4"X6" painting done by my husband's Aunt Nettie Wade. Brings me joy.)

My heart has been heavy lately. Because of numerous things. Many things that are predictably normal happenings such as losing older family members and friends of my age getting diseases that may take their lives before too much longer. At our ages things like that just normally begin to happen. But some of the things that lay heavy on my heart are things that seemingly should not be happening. Heartache and hurt brought on by selfishness or insecurity or jealously...you name it, people use it to hurt other people.  The bottom line though is that all this heartache is brought on by sin....mine, yours, theirs. For after Adam first sinned in the Garden of Eden it has been all down hill from there.  Sin is what caused our bodies...and minds...to to get sick.  Sin is what causes all the problems in this old world.

This morning I woke early and instead of going back to sleep I began to read in Isaiah 61.  The first few verses there spoke to my heart and I began to feel such a comforting peace descend upon me. Isaiah 61:1-3 says this: "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God: to comfort all that mourn: To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified."

Good tidings preached.  Wounds of the brokenhearted bound up.  Liberty given to captives.  Prisoners set free. Mourners comforted.  Beauty and the oil of joy instead of the ashes of mourning.  And A GARMENT OF PRAISE in the place of the spirit of heaviness!  All of this so that the LORD might be glorified!

Our Lord Jesus Christ wants us to have joy in Him!  ("the joy of the Lord is your strength"...Nehemiah 8:10) My prayer today is that myself and any of you reading this who are also heavy hearted will begin to experience our wounds being bound up, liberty given to captives and prisoners of satan's stronghold, and the oil of joy being poured on our heads in the place of the ashes of mourning!

To get this healing started I believe it's important to get into an attitude of PRAISE!  (have you heard the song that says "It's amazing what praising can do!"?)  And then I believe that in all of this, the LORD will be glorified!  And that, you know, is why we were made in the first place...for His glory! "for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him." Isaiah 43:7

My prayer today for you my friends and for myself, is that we will put our eyes on Jesus and let Him give us the joy we need! For we can have His joy even on the days when tears flow from our eyes! He is worthy of our praise!  "God did not die merely to save our souls, but to empower us to live in a way that would glorify God right here on earth!" (quote by Dr. Henry Morris)

May God bless you!

Marilyn

Our Offerings of Scraps

Recently a friend was sharing at church how she felt like her life had gotten so busy with work and summer gardening and outside chores that she realized she had been just giving God the ‘’leftovers’’ of her time and attention.  I could identify with that.  I think we all can from time to time.

This morning as I was reading in Isaiah, I came across some Scripture that put into a word picture how we are prone to act.  (Isaiah 44:14-17) In these verses it talks about planting an ash tree and the rain coming and making it grow.  Then along comes a man and cuts the tree down.  He cuts off part of it to make a fire to warm himself.  Then after he’s warm outside, he bakes bread to warm and nourish his insides.  And then with the “residue”….the leftovers….he takes his knife and whittles out an image.  (“…for he will take thereof, and warm himself; yea, he kindleth it, and baketh bread; yea, he maketh a god, and worshippeth it; he maketh it a graven image, and falleth down thereto” Isaiah 44:15) This is not some wooden doll or plaything that he’s taking home to his kids either!  He has made a wooden image to fall down in front of and worship!  He’s made himself a god!

Are we not guilty of the same thing? Not with a literal tree but with other things.  We spend time working, playing, buying, selling, planting, harvesting, reading, writing…you name it.  Some of the things we busy ourselves with are good things!  Our jobs provide the means to keep us warm in the winter and food on the table. Many things we do are good and necessary. But many things also could probably be left undone.  We have become such BUSY people!  And where does God sometimes fit into our BUSY lives?  He gets the leftovers. The scraps.  The residue.  We get to the place that we still try to quickly go through the motions of worshipping God but our heart is not in it.  We’re just wanting to soothe a guilty conscience and we end up doing not much more than the heathen bowing down to his whittled out image that he made from the ‘’residue’’ of his tree.  We may call ourselves worshipping God when in reality we are worshipping the things that keep us so busy and away from God.

I admit that I am often guilty.  But I don’t want to stay that way.  If Jesus were literally visiting me, I would never eat a banana and throw the peeling to Him.  I wouldn’t peel a fresh, juicy, red tomato and eat a big tomato sandwich for lunch and put the peelings on a plate and offer that to God!  But basically that’s what I’m sometimes doing in my spiritual life!  I give my best effort, my time and energy, to things of the world instead of giving my best to God first and then letting the world have my leftover time and energy.  I deceive myself when I think I am truly loving and worshipping God as I should when I just give Him my leftovers instead of my ‘’first fruits”!  He deserves to come first in my life and the life of every Christian!

“I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me:” Isaiah 45:5

God bless you!

Marilyn

Nasty But Necessary

(view through my pollen-covered windshield one Sunday morning)

Pollen. That's almost like a cuss word here in the South during the spring months! It's finally gotten to where at least my car doesn't have a fresh yellowish-green fuzzy coating of the stuff every morning now. I breathe a sigh of relief over that!

But just a couple of weeks ago, that was not the case!  A few Sundays ago as I walked from my front door to my car headed to church, I noticed the dogwood trees were decked out in their beautiful white "Sunday best" blooms.  When I backed out of the carport to turn around, the same dogwood trees were right in front of me.  But to my surprise I could barely recognize them through my windshield that had been covered with a thick layer of pollen during the night.

I thought to myself, "Why do we have to have this nasty stuff anyway?"  That brought back memories from earlier school years and science classes. I know that pollen is necessary. Without it plants would not be able to reproduce. They would eventually die.

And even though I realize and accept these scientific truths....I still hate the sneezing, the scratchy eyes, nose, and throat,  and the watery eyes that comes with the pollen each season.  Isn't that a lot like life in general? There are things that we go through that really bother us. That hurt us. That aggravate us. That we hate! But some of these things...not all mind you.... are really needful and helpful to us in the long run. Some of the hard and difficult times in our lives are actually growing experiences and can make us better persons.  Especially this is true in our spiritual lives I think.

Let's face it...none of us like all that pollen floating around in the air in our face making us sick! But without it we would cease to see any more plants living and growing. It's nasty...but necessary for reproduction. And at the same time we don't like to go through times of trial and heartache.  But without them we would cease to grow in our spiritual lives.  We need that growth so that we can witness to others and they can find eternal life through Jesus Christ.

"Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:"  (1 Peter 1:6-7)

May God bless you is my prayer!

Marilyn

Just Hanging On

One sunny but windy day last week I hung out a load of laundry on the clothesline in my back yard.  A few hours later as I happened to look out the window I saw that my favorite turquoise blouse (that I had put on a hanger to dry) had almost blown off by the gusty winds.  I thought to myself, "It's just barely hanging on!" It was actually sort of amusing to think of it in that way.

But then I realized that I was identifying with this wind blown garment.  Lately it seems like there are some areas in my life where I am just barely "hanging on".  Maybe I'm getting lazy. Or maybe I'm tired of the pressure. There are certain problems that I sometimes just feel like giving in to or giving up on!

The last few months have been like a pressure cooker at times. I'm sure you know the feeling. My problems and your problems are not the same but the pressures and fatigue and pain we get from our varied problems sometimes are the same.

I feel like at times the next big gust of wind is gonna blow me off the line...so to speak. And I guess it would if I was having to do all the holding on.  My blouse never did blow off to the ground.  For two reasons. One...I had used a heavy-duty clothes pin to fasten the hanger to the line.  And two...when I saw the blouse hanging on by one arm, I went out and put it back on the hanger.

God does me like that. For one thing, it may feel like I'm just ''hanging on'', but I know that I'll never fall.  Not from God's Hands anyway.  And then also when God sees me being blown around by the problems of life and it seems like I'm barely ''hanging on'' to my sanity, He comes and gently rearranges me back to where I don't constantly feel like I'm falling.  He gives me peace and security...in HIM.

All of this has made me think of a song by Jeff & Sherri Easter called "Thread of Hope". Click HERE to watch Sherri sing it.

Thanks friend for coming along side me today here at Walking in Truth.

God bless you!

Marilyn

God's Glory

Tomorrow is, by the calendar, Easter Sunday. Someone recently asked me why Easter is not at the same time each year so here is the easiest explanation I found: Easter is always the first Sunday after or on the first full moon, after the first day of Spring in the Northern hemisphere and the first day of Autumn in the Southern hemisphere.

But in my heart this week I have been thinking of Easter, not because of the technicalities of what time of the year we celebrate but because of Who we celebrate on this day. I have been thinking in awe of a God Who would come to earth and take on human flesh, live as a pauper instead of the King He really is, then after living a perfect, sinless life, die a hideous death to pay for the sins of all people in time past, present and future, and finally do what no one before or since has done...raise Himself from the grave in power and glory! And definitely not because any single one of us deserved to be saved, but just because He loves us so! Oh, what a Savior is mine!

This week the ladies Bible study group I study with each Spring and Fall finished yet another Bible study by Beth Moore. This one was "Deuteronomy: the Law of Love". Because God gave the law to Moses, he (Moses) was of course an important figure in this study. In the last lecture we studied about the last part of Moses' life and his death. I think that's what really got me to thinking on the glory of God.

We talked about how there finally came the day when God came to Moses and told him He wanted Moses to come up to Mount Nebo, look at the Promised Land, and then die. (Deuteronomy 32:48-52) Remember that Moses was not going to be allowed to enter the Promised Land because he had disobeyed God in the wilderness by striking the rock for water instead of speaking to it as God had told him.

Those of you who have had Beth Moore's classes know what an active imagination she has! During this lesson she got really dramatic wondering HOW Moses died up on Mt. Nebo once he had finished looking over the Promised Land. "Did he fall off a cliff?" "Did God PUSH him off a cliff?" "HOW did it happen?" She was amusing and we all laughed at some of her suggestions. But then afterward I began to think and use my own imagination. I remembered Moses being on a cloud covered mountain alone with the glory of God while God gave him the laws for the people. "And the glory of the LORD abode upon mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days: and the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud. And the sight of the glory of the LORD was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel. And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights." (Exodus 24:16-18)

Then there was the time after the people had built a tabernacle for God according to the instructions He had given Moses. "And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the LORD talked with Moses. And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door: and all the people rose up and worshipped, every man in his tent door. And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend...". (Exodus 33:9-11)

God spoke to Moses ''face to face'' but we have to remember that God's glory was obscured by a thick cloud covering the tabernacle. Farther down in chapter 33 Moses says to God (verse 18) "I beseech thee, shew me thy glory." God responds to him (verse 20) by saying, "Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live." So God put Moses in the cleft of a rock, covered him with His Hand while He passed by in all His glory, then took away His Hand so Moses could see his back. But He told Moses (verse 23) "my face shall not be seen."

After thinking about the life of Moses and his very unique relationship with God, I wonder if MAYBE....just maybe God took Moses up on Mt. Nebo, showed him all the Promised Land and then....removed the veil and showed Moses His face! MAYBE God revealed to Moses ALL of His glory right then and there and it took Moses' life...just like He had said to Moses that "there shall no man see me, and live."

Well, that's just my idea but it makes my heart swell to think about it! And then on top of all that, to think about this same glorious God dying for ME so that I can go to heaven and see His complete glory myself....well, it's almost more than I can take in this day before Easter! In the great "love chapter" of the Bible...1 Corinthians 13...verse 12 tells us "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." I am so much looking forward to that day when I shall lay down this old body of mortal clay and enter into the joys of heaven where I will see Jesus face to face...in ALL His glory!...and live forever!

~~Marilyn~~

Just A Glimpse

Early this morning as I looked out the kitchen window, I saw just a glimpse of sunshine hitting the very tiptop’s of the trees down past our old barn.  It was so pretty I just had to get my camera and capture the scene.  I thought to myself, “Here’s just a glimpse of the beautiful sunny day that is to come!” And that made me feel excited and happy.

Now several hours later the sunshine is everywhere you look.  I went back outside just now (for only a very few minutes because although the sun is beating down, the temperature is still only thirty-eight degrees) and took another picture of the full face of the sun.  I could not look directly at Mr. Sun because he was so bright!  So I just closed my eyes, held my camera up to the sky and snapped the picture.  Even the camera could not capture the full intensity of the sunshine.  It’s just too much!

All this reminded me of heaven and the fact that we only have just a glimpse now of what awaits us in heaven as children of God.

We can get just a glimpse of what is being prepared for Christians at this very moment when we read the words of Jesus in John 14:1-3….”Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”

What an exciting thing this is! Jesus said here that He is preparing a place for us in heaven so that we can be forever with Him!  That’s where I want to be!

Jesus Christ gives us a further glimpse of heaven in Revelation 21:21-23…..”And the twelve gates were twelve pearls: every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass. And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.”

No need of temples or churches in heaven because the “Lord God Almighty and the Lamb (Jesus) are the temple of it”.  And no need of any kind of lights, either natural or artificial, because Jesus Christ our Lord will be the Light!

Do you remember in the Old Testament how God told Moses that he could get in the cleft of a rock and watch as He passed by? But God told Moses (Exodus 33:20), “Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.”  God is too bright, too majestic, for us to look in His face with our human bodies!  Even the sun that heats our planet earth is too bright for us to look full in its face without leaving our vision impaired or even blinded.  And this sun is just something that God spoke and it came into being during creation week!  Our frail minds cannot even imagine the brightness of our God.

As I look at 1 Corinthians 13:12 (For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.), it makes me think about watching my husband when he welds.  He has a special welding mask that has a very dark thick glass front that protects his eyes from being burned while looking at the brightness of the light that comes from welding.  Without it, the light would blind him.  1 Corinthians 13:12 tells us that right now it’s like we are looking at God through a welding mask (through a glass, darkly).  We can see him through just a glimpse we get in the Word but, Oh, what  a day that will be when we can see Him FACE to FACE!

Friend, do you have your reservation made for this unimaginably wonderful destination?  It’s already been paid for by the death of God’s only begotten son, Jesus Christ!  We can’t even imagine how great it will be!  1 Corinthians 2:9 says “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”

God bless you friends! Thanks for taking time to share “just a glimpse” of heaven with me today!

Marilyn

Mama

(Mama around 30 years old)

March 3, 1970, is one of the darkest days in my memory.  Both physically and emotionally. 

Physically I was a sixteen-year-old girl sitting in afternoon Spanish class looking out the window at the black clouds that had suddenly covered the sun.  The sky turned so very dark. Then came the wind and the rain. Back then there were no weather alerts but I’m almost sure that there was a strong storm very close by. 

Emotionally I was just a little girl worried about her Mama that day.  She was being transported by ambulance from our small county hospital to a large hospital in a metropolitan city about seventy miles away.  When I had visited her in the hospital the night before she was delirious and didn’t recognize me. That broke my heart. My emotions were in a jumble but having come from a family where showing your emotions were sometimes frowned upon, I was trying to keep all that to myself.

I admit I was not a very good student that day between the raging storm outside the windows and the one raging in my heart and soul.  Then there was a knock on the classroom door…something that was very out of the ordinary…and I looked up to see Mama’s doctor through the small diamond shaped glass window.  At the sight of him my heart came up into my mouth and I felt sick.  I knew there must be something very wrong.  My teacher went out and spoke with him first and then came back to the door and called me out.  The two of them took me across the hall to the teacher’s lounge and Dr. Ketchum told me that Mama had passed away in the ambulance that afternoon.  I wanted to scream!  I wanted to lash out at someone in some way! I wanted to cry!  But what I did was grit my teeth together and ball my hands up into fists and determine in my mind that I was not going to cry in front of these people!  That nobody was going to see my true emotions!

From that time on I never really felt like a young person anymore.  I was the only child left at home and so I became the cook and housekeeper for my Daddy while also going to school every day.  Thankfully Daddy was a man of habit and he believed in everything having a place and always kept things in their place.

My Mama has been in heaven for forty-three years today.  If anyone ‘’deserved’’ to go to heaven in my eyes, it was Mama.  She was truly the best woman I have ever known!  But as good as she was, even she never ‘’deserved’’ to go to heaven!  And she would have been the first to tell you that!  She went to heaven because at some point in her life she realized her need as a sinner to have Jesus as her Saviour!  And she trusted Him to be all that she needed for salvation.

My life’s goal is to be the kind of godly woman that Mama was!

Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.  Proverbs 31: 30

How About Your Heart?

Last night I had the privilege to speak to a group of sweet ladies at Unity Baptist Church. Since it happened to be Valentine's Day, the theme of my message was the heart. One of the first things I did was read the lyrics to an old song titled, "How About Your Heart".

1. Friend, how would you feel if your heart were made

With a window on each side?

So that all could see, not just outward charm,

But detect if inward harm?

Chorus:

People often see you as you are outside;

Jesus really knows you, for He sees deep down inside;

How about your heart, Is it right with God?

That's the thing that counts today.

2. Is it black with sin, is it pure within,

Have you asked Christ in to stay?

How about your heart? Is it right with God

That's the thing that counts today:

This is so true!  This is the thing that counts today and every day!  God doesn’t always see a pretty red Valentine when He looks at our heart. Sometimes He has some pretty strong words to say about us.   Such as Jeremiah 17:9  The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

Many a person has gotten in trouble because they have just ‘’followed their heart’’ instead of getting into God’s Word and seeing if their heart was right with God first.

ALL of us have hearts that are deceitful and wicked.  The Bible says so.  We get defiled by the world every day.  It ‘’clings’’to us if we’re not careful.

We get all of this worldly stuff stuck on us and we come to God and He tells us how to get it to turn loose….. Ephesians 5:26That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

John 15:3 “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.”   

So now we’ve talked about what to do when we get the stink of the world on us…..be washed by the water of God’s Word. There’s nothing like the mirror of God’s Word that will point out to us the mess we have gotten ourselves into!

Next I pulled two red Valentine boxes out of my bag. One box looked pretty. The other box was all marked on and messy looking. The pretty one was the symbol of love in that it was in the shape of a heart, was red in color, and had a picture of a red rose on it. But on closer examination it was found when I turned the box over that the seal had been broken and a piece of freezer tape put back in it's place. Even more tampering had been done because when I opened the box, instead of luscious chocolate candies, there were plain ole rocks!  I used this box as an example of how things of the world can LOOK beautiful on the outside but yet on the inside if they were consumed they would be very harmful.  This box reminded me of Satan and how he uses his beauty to deceive people into being hurt. 

Ezekiel 28:17 says of Satan…”Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty.”  He’s a beauty on the surface BUT horrible and evil on the inside.  

The other box was pretty ugly.  It had zigzag marks on it and words like: hatred, lying, lust, pride, and envy. This box reminded me of the way some of us see ourselves. We fall into the sins I mentioned and many others not mentioned.  We all know what we’re guilty of.  Even as Christian women we do these things. And sometimes even even though we confess our sins to God, Satan keeps bringing them up and makes us wonder if God had just rather ‘’throw us away’’ than keep cleaning us up.  Well, you know the answer to that but just let me tell you again…just like the song says  “He doesn’t throw the clay away”. 

Then I turned the ugly, marked up, scarred box over and asked this question... What’s different about this box of candy?  The answer was: It has the SEAL still on it! And if we have been saved, we are SEALED.  Ephesians 1:13 says In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed were sealed with the holy Spirit of promise,

When we get saved we are at that same time ‘’sealed’’ unto the day of redemption by the Holy Spirit.  But things may happen in our lives that scar us.  We may face the loss of something precious to us.  A job. Our home. Or a loved one.  Things may not have turned out in our lives the way we had dreamed and planned as a young girl.  You may have been abused physically, mentally, verbally, or sexually as a child.  These kinds of abuse take away things from our hearts and minds that nothing except God can replace!

The Holy Spirit has sealed us up and Satan can’t get to us to take us away from God.  Just like the ugly box of candy.  The outside had been marred and messed up but the SEAL  had not been broken!  The owner of this box of candy can break this seal, peel off the marred wrapper and find that there is indeed CANDY and NOT rocks in this box!  Praise the Lord for his seal upon our souls! 

I  closed the night with the question we began with….How about YOUR heart? Is it right with God?  I ask the same question to you today. If you don’t know, ask God to reveal the condition of your heart. Because that IS the thing that counts today and for all of eternity!

After I closed in prayer and sat down, the ladies group presented me with the sweetest Willow Tree figurine I have ever seen! She's called "Wisdom" and she will have an honored place in my home!

May God bless each of you is my prayer!

Marilyn