Double Vision

The eye is an amazing organ! It is another great example of how our body is "fearfully and wonderfully made"!

One day this week I had to have dental work done in preparation for getting a new crown on a tooth. My dentist has a limit on how high a person's blood pressure can be when she works on them and sometimes mine exceeds that limit. I'm not scared of the dentist. I'm just scared my blood pressure will be too high....therefore it usually is! Crazy! Sooooo... the past couple of times I've had work done when she had to numb up my mouth she's insisted I take some prescription meds for anxiety.

Early that morning I put the two small white pills in the palm of my hand, asked the Lord to bless them to my good, and then put them in my mouth and swallowed them down with a bit of water. All seemed to go fine until my husband was driving me the hour's distance to the dentist's office. I suddenly noticed that I was seeing everything that was very far away from me in pairs! I was seeing double! Not blurry vision but two separate everythings! Something that had never happened to me before and it was a little scary to say the least!

Every car or truck we met on the highway had a twin. Every light pole came in pairs. Every stop sign had a double. The scary thing was that there was no way that I could tell which one was the real thing and which was the mirror image of it! I'm not sure just what caused this but I did not like it at all and hope that it never happens again.

A few days later as I thought about that experience it reminded me how important it is for us to know that what we are looking at is the real deal. Especially in spiritual matters. Maybe you've heard that Satan has a counterfit for every good thing that God has created. So we need to ask ourselves...is this of God? Or is it a counterfit from Satan?

James 4:8Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.

Seeing double is not a normal thing. It's not a desirable thing. It can be a very dangerous thing! These statements are true whether talking about our physical vision or our spiritual vision! To keep our spiritual vision healthy, we must keep our eyes on ONE Person.....the Lord Jesus Christ!

Matthew 6:22The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

What's your vision like today?

Marilyn

His Eye Is On the Sparrow

Early this morning I was mulling over Isaiah 26:3 in my mind and heart..."Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee." As I sat at the kitchen table with my head bowed in prayer asking God to help me keep my mind on Him more and telling Him that I wanted to trust in Him more, I heard a very unusual noise. At first I kept on praying but in a minute after the noise increased I had to open my eyes and see if I could discover what was going on.

I looked in the direction the noise was coming from and there was a bird...perhaps a sparrow...holding on to the screen on the kitchen window over the sink. The little bird was hopping and scratching from place to place on the screen and that's what was making the funny noise.

Immediately I knew God was sending me a message as my mind went to the lyrics of an old song I used to hear sung a lot...."Why do I feel discouraged? Why do the shadows come? Why does my heart feel lonely, and long for heaven and home? When Jesus is my portion, my constant Friend is He. His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me!" (lyricist Civilla D. Martin and composer Charles H. Gabriel)

It was like God said to me "Don't be so worried about everything! I take care of this little bird on your window screen. How much more will I take care of you!"

Just to reinforce this promise, I turned to Matthew 10:29-31 and read these verses: "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.
But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows"

Lord, help me to remember today and everyday that I am Your child and that you are watching over me at all times! Thank you!

And my prayer today is that each of you who reads this will realize this same thing!

God bless!

Marilyn

Victory Is Ours !

Who doesn't want to experience victory? Who wants to lose? Not me and not you! So how can we be sure that we can be on the "winning side"? It's according to what we're talking about I suppose. If it's a physical or mental opposition we're facing such as a tennis match or a chess game (neither of which I play by the way!) then the way to experience victory lies in getting stronger physically or mentally than our opponant. But if it's a spiritual victory that we're wanting then the answer is found in Scripture: "But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." I Corinthians 15:57

Spiritual victory is found in letting God fight the battle for us and not trying to get "strong enough" to do it on our own. Remember what David said when he fought the giant Goliath: "And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD's, and he will give you into our hands." I Samuel 17:47

In just a few days many eyes will be glued to TV sets all over the world to see who wins the Super Bowl. Who will have the victory. And this is all right....to some degree. But to some people, this is their religion! I read on a news article this morning where someone remarked that they were getting to the Super Bowl in spite of the raging frozen precipitation falling even "if they had to crawl". How many of us as Christians would say that we were going to go "wherever" God was calling us even "if we had to crawl"? Die-hard sports fans put us to shame in their tenacity! Oh that I could be that much of a fanatic about the cause of Christ!

In the January issue of the AFA Journal there was a very interesting commentary by Matt Friedeman. The title was "Thank God my College Football Team is Losing". Here is an excerpt from the commentary: "He commented...jokingly...that now he could forget all about them and lift up his heart totally to God. He also told the story of on time one of the members of the board of Wesley Biblical Seminary said a friend had said to him that he quietly feared that his children might not want to attend Ole Miss. The board member responded with...'Not to worry...You drink from Ole Miss cups, give money to Ole Miss, never miss an Old Miss ballgame, wear Ole Miss clothes, have scrapbooks full of Ole Miss in your home, talk/joke/dream Ole Miss....of course your kids are going to go to Ole Miss.' Remembering Deuteronomy 6:5-7 ("And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.") it appears the friend had replaced the law of God with a school. Wonder how many of us have done the same with sports teams."
[Go here to read the complete commentary on Matt Friedeman's blog.]

Real victory in our lives comes only from God. Eugene M. Bartlett who wrote the words to "Victory in Jesus" realized this. Here are the words to the chorus of his song:
"O victory in Jesus My Savior, forever He sought me and bought me With His redeeming blood; He loved me 'ere I knew Him And all my love is due Him He plunged me to victory Beneath the cleansing flood. "

And so my friends....Victory is ours through our Lord Jesus Christ!

Marilyn

Whiter Than Snow

It came! The snow that the weathermen forecast really came to Mississippi last week! We were as ready as we could get I think and enjoyed the beauty of it even if we didn't get out and play in it!

When I see the fresh fallen snow...before anything has walked or driven on it...I am reminded of how fast I forget just how blindingly brilliantly white it is! If the sun is shining ,sunglasses are really the necessary accessory for the day!

James L. Nicholson wrote a song called "I Shall Be Whiter Than Snow". I can just imagine that he wrote this after seeing a fresh covering of snow...perhaps with the sun glinting on it. Here's the first verse and refrain of his song:

Lord Jesus, I long to be perfectly whole;I want Thee forever to live in my soul;Break down every idol, cast out every foe—Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Refrain:Whiter than snow, yes, whiter than snow,Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

And that is Biblical. The Prophet Isaiah recorded this in Isaiah 1:18 : 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.

So when the beautiful white snow comes and covers the dirty, muddy ground, let it always be a picture to remind us how God's love and salvation covers our dirty ugly sins and makes us white as snow!

God bless!

Marilyn

Prepared for Tomorrow

Today has been a beautiful sunny day with clear blue skies. Quite a contrast to what the weather forecasters are telling us will be happening tomorrow. In fact, we are under a "Winter Storm Warning" with the prospect of snow accumulation of 4 to 8 inches possible. That's pretty unusual for Mississippi! So we've been getting things ready. Since we heat our house with a big Ashley wood heater, Benny has already been cutting wood for the winter for a few months. He has a huge stack of wood in front of the house.

But in preparation for the "Big Event", he filled up the big wood ring on the front porch so that we'd have dry wood not covered by the snow.

And the big woodbox we've had in our living room close to thirty years (can you believe that?? lol) is brimming over with good seasoned oak wood cut from our farm. So, Lord willing, we will stay nice and warm if and when the snow comes.

I was thinking that it's good to be prepared for tomorrow physically. But how much more important it is for us to be prepared for tomorrow spiritually. The most important thing we need for preparedness in our spirit is salvation. Without knowing without a doubt we're saved, we have no hope of tomorrow. Romans 6:23For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

After a person is saved, then something else he can do to prepare for tomorrow (the future) is to read the Bible to find out what God's will is for his life. Psalm 119:11Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

When we put our trust in God, then we are completely prepared for tomorrow. Period. Proverbs 30:5Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.

May God bless you...tomorrow and every day!

Marilyn

Happy New Year 2011

As I sit here to write my last blog post of 2010, there are only a little over twelve hours remaining until 2011 officially arrives! There's no way to un-do or re-do what happened in this year so I hope that most of us don't have a lot of regrets. On the other hand, we can't live forever on memories of the good things that happened. Every day we live is a new day with new promise. "Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah." (Psalm 68:19)

This week I have been asking myself what one main thing I would like to do different in 2011 than I did in 2010. In my Bible study one day I was directed to read Isaiah 61: 1-3. (1)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;
(2)To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;
(3)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.

Verse 3 just jumped out at me! I am so prone to have a "spirit of heaviness" or what I would call "worry"! And I'm so sick of it! In 2011 I want to trade in my "spirit of heaviness" for a brand new "garment of praise"!

How about you? What's your number one goal for 2011? I'd love to know!

Happy New Year to all !

Marilyn

Are You Creating a Godly Legacy?

Look what came in the mail the other day! My good friend Leah Adams' first published Bible study titled "From the Trash Pile to the Treasure Chest: Creating a Godly Legacy". Leah will be hosting an online Bible study of this new book on her blog "The Point" starting January 6, 2011. Why don't you hop on over and find out how you can join us?

I certainly want to do everything I can to leave a godly legacy myself. I want my children and grandchildren to know that I loved God. I want my life to point to HIM and not to myself. I'm sure you feel the same way!

I'm depending on God to show me more of His Word and His plans in this next year of 2011. "Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore." Psalm 16:11

I pray you will have a Blessed & Happy New Year!

Marilyn