Little Things

Do you only pray when you have a huge problem? Or do you, like me, pray about little things too?  Yesterday as I was in the local Walmart Supercenter shopping, I suddenly realized that I had lost my shopping list.  I sometimes see people walking around picking up their groceries without looking at a list but if I tried to do that I would never reach home with the things I needed. I'm a list person.  It doesn't matter if it's a grocery list or a to-do list for the house, I just seem to do better with my intentions laid out there for me to look at!

I had been looking at some things yesterday in the ladies clothing section before heading over to the grocery aisles. When I started to leave clothing for groceries I reached in my purse for my list.  It was not where I thought it was. Maybe I had stuck it in one of the side pockets. Not there either! I remembered having looked at it right after coming in the door so I knew I had brought it with me.  Oh my!  It was probably lying somewhere on the floor in that big store!  But where?

The first thing I did was to start praying and asking the Lord to please help me find my list. To some this might sound like something too small to bother God with but I like to talk to Him about everything. I started back-tracking and sure enough there it was….the piece of yellow lined legal pad paper with my long list….lying on the floor near some clothing I had been looking at.

My first response as I bent over to retrieve my list was to say, "Thank you Jesus!"  As I was straightening back up, I saw a young lady in my side vision and immediately realized I had said, "Thank you Jesus" audibly.  I thought to myself. "She probably thinks I'm some crazy old woman talking to herself!"  But it happened to be a young lady I know who had recognized me and had come purposely to speak to me.  I laughed and told her that I had been thanking the Lord out loud for helping me find my list.  She is a delightful young Christian and I knew that she would be able to identify with that.

I Thessalonians 5:17…Pray without ceasing.

I'm so glad that we can go to God with ANYTHING no matter how small!!

May God bless you!

Marilyn

Women Walking with Jesus

I'm happy to say that Lisa Shaw has asked me and several other women to be a part of something new on her ministry page called "Women Walking with Jesus". It's "Grand Opening" is today! Here's what Lisa says about it: "Do you want to read real-life stories from women who may have some of the same experiences you may have had? Women who can relate to your needs as a woman? Women walking with Jesus are real women who face real-life just like you do. These women are different ages, stages, backgrounds and cultures who are caring, compassionate, imperfect and flawed who share the common bond of experiencing the day-to-day love and grace of Jesus and we want to share His love and grace with you."

Please come over to Lisa Shaw: Encouraging Women to See Themselves Through God's Eyes and check out this new ministry!

God bless you!

Marilyn

Snow!

Snow!  That’s the most popular word I’ve been hearing the past few days. While being one of the southern most states, Mississippi is getting unusually cold weather this winter with several snowfalls already.  It doesn’t matter how often snow falls here or how many years between a snow, it always amazes me when I look at it!  The whiteness of it! The pureness! The delicateness! And it’s true that each snowflake is different.  How can anyone disbelieve the existence of a Creator knowing that?  “For he saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth;…”  (Job 37:6a)

I love to look at a fresh snow that has not yet been touched by footprints or tire tracks.  All you can see is white, glistening snow!  It doesn’t matter if there is a pile of trash, a patch of weeds, or a frozen mud puddle….when the snow covers it all you can see is cleanness and whiteness!  It reminds me of how we look to God after we’ve been cleansed and covered with the righteousness of His perfect Son, the Lord Jesus Christ!  “wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.”  (Psalm 51:7b) If we have been saved, no longer does God see the filth and dirtiness that once defined who we were…only the spotless cleanness of our Savior!

“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” (Isaiah 1:18 KJV)

As I look out the window now, the sun is shining on the snow like millions of diamonds.  I can hardly look at it without it hurting my eyes it is so bright!  Looking at the sun shining on great quantities of snow (such as up in the mountains skiing) without proper eye protection can cause snow blindness.  This affects the eyes in the same general way that looking directly at the sun can do.  Our eyes are just not made to look at anything this bright!   Do you remember when Saul was on the road to Damascus in Acts, chapter nine?  A great light shined on him and he was blind for three days.  This Light was actually the presence of the Lord Jesus as He was speaking to Saul!  We’re told in Revelation 21: 23 that in heaven there will be no need of the sun or the moon to give light because  “the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.”

Snow!  It never fails to remind me of the GRACE of God….how He has taken my black heart and made it white as snow.  And the GLORY of God…how He is the “light of the world’ and the light of heaven! 

I’m so glad that when God looks at me, He sees me robed in the white as snow righteousness of His Son, Jesus Christ!

May God bless you!!

Marilyn

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