Where Are YOU Looking?

Before we bought out last refrigerator, we were in Sears one day checking out what selections they had to offer.  As my husband and I walked through the appliance section of the store, I noticed a little girl running from one refrigerator to another.  She was probably only three or four years old and cute as a button.  At each fridge she would grab the handle, give it a hard tug, open the door and peer in, then slam the door and go to the next fridge in line and do the same thing.  After she did this a few times I heard the little girl’s mother ask her why she was doing that.  The child looked at her mommy so seriously and said, “I’m hungry! I’m looking for something to eat!”  I could not help but laugh!  I’m sure she must have been used to going to a well-stocked refrigerator in her home to get snacks and just assumed that ALL fridges had food in them. 

As grownups, we would never try to find a snack in the refrigerators on the show room floor in Sears!  We know better.  But I wonder how many times we look for soul nourishment in places where none exists?  The world tells us that we will be satisfied (full) if we get the right education, the best job, the perfect mate, the most money, the desired body weight/image, etc.  All of those things can be good.  All of those things can add to our lives. But none of those things, in and of themselves, can nourish our souls.  That can only come from a relationship with Jesus Christ.   John 6:35 says this:  “And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.”

There are multitudes of hungry people in the world. Contrary to the opinions of some, spiritual hunger is more important to be fed than physical hunger.  Jesus said in Mark 8:36, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” But until we are ‘’alive’’ in Christ though salvation through faith we cannot receive spiritual food.  After salvation spending time with Jesus through Bible study and prayer then gives nourishment to our new life in Him.

Spiritual hunger is just as real as physical hunger and just as important to be fed. But we mustn’t focus only on spiritual hunger when someone is physically hungry also!  It is our duty as Christians to help the poor and the hungry.  Jesus said that when we do this for “the least of these’’, (Matthew 25:37-40) it’s just like we are doing it for Him.

Let’s just make sure that we are looking for healthy and wholesome foods….both physical and spiritual…in the right places!  Not in empty refrigerators or empty promises of this world!

May God bless you!

Marilyn 

My Three Mothers and Their Influence in My Life

Please join me today as I share some sweet memories of three of the most special ladies ever in my life over at Women Walking With Jesus.

Click HERE to read my post called 'My Three Mothers".

Hope you had a Happy Mother's Day yesterday either as a mother, or with/remembering your mother, or both.

May God bless you!

Marilyn

Arrogance, Plain and Simple!

Please join me today over at Lisa Shaw's blog for my article in Women Walking with Jesus.

Here's an excerpt:

Mondays are not usually good days for me.  Sometimes I feel like I’ve been run over by a truck! Today was no different. I was hoping to take it easy after fixing our usual “Monday lunch”….beans, rice and cornbread. Then I remembered that the dog needed to be fed. Clothes needed to be washed and dried. And I didn’t need to forget…again… to read my Bible either! I planned to eat an early lunch with my husband and then be ready to walk out the door at twelve sharp so I could carry a friend to her yearly visit to the eye doctor at one o’clock. Whew!

At twelve noon I walked out the door.  Right on time. When we arrived at the doctor’s office, I went in to make sure everything was on schedule before leaving to run some errands of my own.  As I sat in a padded, blue chair in the waiting room, I saw a young couple with a beautiful black haired little girl come in.  She looked to be in first or second grade and sounded very intelligent. I overheard her say to her mother, “Are you sure this is a children’s clinic, too?  It looks like it is just an adult clinic.”   I smiled because she sounded so grown up and serious. In a few minutes my friend was signed in and I left to do my errands.

After an hour’s shopping, I was ready to go back and see if my friend was done.  I went in the waiting room but she was not there. After looking through stacks of magazines, I found one I thought I would enjoy and sat down to read.  I did not have time to open the magazine before the daddy of the little black haired girl that I previously mentioned opened the door, walked in and promptly plopped himself down in the chair right beside me!  

(Click HERE to finish reading and see what happened!)

Thanks for joining me here today!

May God bless you my friends!

Marilyn

Please God, HELP ME!!!

One of my favorite things to do in my "old age" is to rummage through flea markets and thrift stores with my husband.  Several weeks ago while doing just this, I began to look at each book in the section marked "Christian books".  I always do this and sometimes find wonderful books at a great price.  That day I came across a pretty pink hardback Prayer Journal.  It was obvious from the cover that it was marketed for young girls.  With my young granddaughter in mind, I started leafing through the journal. On the left page there would be a little devotional.  The right page would begin a suggested prayer thought concerning the devotion on the previous page and then there were several blank lines so that your own individual prayer could be written in the journal. It was very nice and looked like it had never been used.  But then as I continued to glance through the journal I found that one….and only one….page had been written on.

I didn't buy the journal since it had been used but that one and only entry touched my heart.  I took out my phone and took a picture of it.  Not having the journal in hand, I can't remember what the devotional was about but the suggested prayer started like this  -- "Dear Heavenly Father, I'm so mixed up. Some people tell me one thing, and others tell me just the opposite.  I want to do the right thing. I sure need your help. Here is what I'm trying to figure out:" On the blank lines following that, a young girl had written her prayer in bold print with some misspellings so I want to think she was most likely between the ages of eight and ten years.  Here is exactly what she said and how she wrote it:

"Sometimes I don't know wheather to play with Lyida or Lauren. And sometimes I don't know to belive in me or my friends, please,God HELP ME!!!"

My heart just melted as I read this melancholy prayer written by some unknown (to me) little girl.   More than once I have thought about her and said a prayer for her.  I even wondered if perhaps I was the only other person who had read this journal entry besides the child who had penned it.  But I know that I am not!  I know that God saw it and even now continues to see it.  I truly believe that He did help this child who cried out to Him in her time of need.

How many times have I …even as an adult…felt the same way this little girl did? Not really knowing who to believe or who to turn to and crying out, "Please, God HELP ME!!!"  And so many times God puts His arms around me and whispers to my soul, "Believe ME!  Turn to ME!"  That's always the right answer! And He's always ready to help us when we call on Him.

"Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need."  Hebrews 4:16  (KJV)

May God bless you!

Marilyn

Why Does It Amaze Me?

"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."

Matthew 7:7

I had the most fascinating answer to prayer last night that I could hardly wait to share today! A few days ago I had put on my status that I was looking for a copy of a little booklet that I had made years ago while teaching a Bible study on Esther.  It was compiled of quotes from many of my friends…including some of you reading this!…telling what they felt is the toughest thing about being a woman. I'm planning to teach Esther again soon and wanted to make more copies of the booklet.  Normally I keep things like that in some kind of a file…either saved onto a CD or in a folder in a filing cabinet. No one replied that they still had a copy.  I had looked high and low for three straight days--and I mean that literally!  I looked in storage under the bed, from the top of my bookcase to the bottom, and checked every CD that was labeled with any kind of Sunday school material.  Nothing!

So yesterday I just gave up and said to God, "OK. I can not find it! If you want me to have this booklet You'll have to just drop it in my lap!" And then I stopped looking.

Last night just before bedtime I checked my email. Almost every day I have to delete spam emails that ''say'' they are comments on one of my blogposts (I have to approve all comments before they will post) but in reality they are usually just disguised advertisements.  I can usually tell at a glance if it's spam or a real person just posting anonymously by the title of the blogpost listed. If it's a recent post, then it might be legitimate. If it's the title of some post years ago, then almost always it's spam.  The one last night had a post title that I almost didn't recognize. It said "Our Red Book". And then I caught my breath!  That's what the name of the little booklet I had been searching for all this week was named and I had forgotten that after all these years! Could it be, could it possibly be, that I had written a blogpost that included exactly what I needed?

The email was entirely in some kind of language that doesn't use our print…probably Chinese. Of course I could not read a word of it. So I knew without a doubt it was spam. Heavenly spam ''dropped into my lap'' from heaven!  I clicked on the link to Our Red Book and sure enough, there it was!  All printed out in black and white. God made it so easy for me! Now all I have to do is copy and paste instead of having to re-type all of it. I began thanking and praising the Lord for answering my prayer and for spoiling me like He does. I know I went to sleep last night smiling! And I'm still smiling today!

God bless you,

Marilyn

He's Crazy About Her!

A few weeks ago we had the privilege of having all our children and grandchildren over for a meal around our huge old oak pedestal table.  After we'd all had our fill of the food, my husband, daughter, and myself were still sitting at the table while our five-year-old grandson finished up his dinner.  Suddenly he had the cutest look on his face!  He covered his mouth while he grinned and hunched up his little shoulders.  When we asked what had happened he replied that he had a secret and would tell us when he finished eating.

In a few minutes he cupped his hand over his mouth and whispered, "Are you ready for the secret?" Oh yeah!  We sure were!  I was very curious.  He smiled the biggest smile and then said, "Uncle David kissed Aunt Amber on the lips!!" (that's our youngest son and his wife)  Just for effect all us grown-ups gasped and said, "Really?"  It made our grandson feel so important to be able to tell us this secret of his!

Overhearing that conversation, our eight-year-old granddaughter piped up and said, "Awwww….that's because he's crazy about her!"  Everyone had a good laugh over that!  I knew where she got that saying because ever since the grandkids were really small, my husband has always told them that he's "crazy about Granmama!"

Later after everyone had left and I was thinking back through the events of the day, I thought about how God is absolutely crazy about each one of His children! Sometimes I feel lonely and far away from God.  Not because He's gone anywhere but because I have become cold and indifferent to Him. It made me absolutely smile from ear to ear thinking about how crazy God is about me even though I sure don't deserve it !!  And He's crazy about you! And it's no secret either!  He tells us over and over in His book of love letters to us. 

Ephesians 2:3-5  "Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)"

So don't forget…..He's crazy about you!

Marilyn

Blowing of the Wind

What does the title "Blowing of the Wind" bring to your mind?  Flying kites? Chasing leaves? Or hunkering down while a tornado or hurricane passes over?  Please join me over at Lisa Shaw's blog called  Women Walking with Jesus and see what I wrote about the winds in our lives today.

May God bless you!

Marilyn

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

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