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