Fall into Perspective

 

I love this time of year when the leaves change colors and brilliance dazzles the countryside with grandeur! It truly is God’s Canvas come alive!

That is……..

If you have the right perspective! My teenage son and I were driving home this week and we live in the country and take the ridge ling to and fro our home in the Hollow. It was early morning and the views were just magnificent! I just let the colors soak in and praised the God who splashed them up there. Really pictures do an injustice but I have attempted to include some.

As I pointed out over and over again to my son, he was not so enamored! Now it could be a boy thing that he just didn’t get as mushy over leaves as his mother or it was his perspective. He said he didn’t like them because that just meant it was going to be a mess. Then he pointed to the ground in someone’s yard that was already blanketed in what I called beauty, what my son called mess!

If you looked down I could see a bit of his point. BUT if you looked up……….. it was some of the most brilliant blend of colors I have ever seen! So it is in our lives! If we find ourselves in a mess we just need to look up, look up to the Heaven and remember where our help comes from! Taking our eyes off our mess and looking up in the eyes of Jesus makes everything beautiful!

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Psalm 46:1

                                               

Invisible Rainbows

 

      One of the most amazing sights are rainbows! The are scientifically complex yet spiritually simple.  They are the zodiac of a stormy sky!  Their brilliance immeasurable.  They have an aurora of mystery surrounding them that still baffles people today.   For those who are not Christians….it is just a gathering of colors displayed for their observance. 

    But to the children of God….they have much meaning. It is a sign, a message if you will, from God!  It tells us that God remembers us, He loves us and he is watching over us! Isn’t that magnificent!  Yes indeed it also means that God will never again flood the earth but it means so much more!

      This year has been a very difficult year….It seems as though it has been one storm after another.  The dark clouds of uncertainty lingered over my head along with storms of suffering and trials of great magnitude.  How I longed to see the “Rainbows” in the darkest of days.

      This is what I learned……that the rainbows are always there….it’s just takes the stormy dark clouds to display them!  The harder the storm the brighter the rainbow after it passes!  So it is in our journey.  The harder the suffering and trials…the more beautiful the “rainbows” of refinement.  

      God’s promises are true whether or not a rainbow shows up!  It’s just occasionally we need a reminder that God is wise, right, and good in all He does.  And that He loves us and all His promises are true!

      Rainbows are God’s hugs to us!  The next time it storms in your life….wrap yourself up in His Rainbow!

Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth. 

Genesis 9:16

 

Eating Humble Pie

 

      I consider myself fairly generous.  I tend to think of myself as the person that would give you the shirt off her back.  I love hospitality!  Encouragement is my gifting coupled with hospitality.  Having people over for dinner, a cup of tea, or dessert, is time well spent. 

      Occasionally God needs to grow us in these areas, but it is painful when He does!  I had a recent lesson and thought I would share it with you.  It was humorous…..but I got the point!  I found out I am not as generous as I thought I was!

     We had some major plumbing problems and so we called the plumber out.  He came and checked things out…..and sure enough it was gonna be a big mess (excuse the pun).  He situated things for the night and planned to return and work on it the next day. 

       The next day I left early with my youngest son to go to our home school co-op and returned at about 1:00 pm.  I was famished upon arrival, having not eating at all that day.  I rushed in and began some fried bologna sandwiches.  Zech unloaded the car and went up to his room.

      Eventually I made it outside to check on the plumber.  He began to tell me in the most hickified accent you ever did hear!  He was covered in ……you know…but he was smiling real big!  He was a nice friendly guy.  sure enough I had several problems and he went on to tell me in great detail the issues….

      And he told me that he had lost traction while hooking up his trailer with his backhoe and it had gone all the way down to the road in front of my house (just missing my electric pole by inches!).  A tree stopped it from going into the road.  He apologized about the nic in the tree.  He showed me the damage to his equipment but was real happy that it was stopped by the tree.  He followed me into the house yakking…..

      I had told him he could help himself to get something to drink while I was gone.  So he proceeded to do so.  My mouth hit the floor as he wiped his hands on his pants, opened the freezer door and got ice out of the ice bucket….talking the whole time….popped open the tea lid and poured himself a drink. (Sorry but even with having only boys…that is just too nasty!!!)

      Remember before I went out I had made the two sandwiches.  While I sat down to write his check he asked, “You ain’t gonna eat both these sandwiches are ya?” My son was still upstairs.  And I was extremely hungry by now….

      I gulped down (way down!) my pride and replied….. “Ummm, well, umm, Have you and your partner had lunch?

      “Nope, we been workin’ real hard for ya.  Cut ya a deal on the labor i did.”  He smiled real proud like.   “Probably about a couple sandwiches worth and some more ice tea!”  the man said.

       I gulped…..”Here let me help you get those sandwiches and tea out to your truck!”  And so there went my lunch!

       Humble pie in the face!  Never before have I been so “ungenerous hearted” but I was famished…..But God needed to show me my selfish heart!

       I was a very humbled lady fixing my second fried bologna sandwich!  God sometimes has very humorous ways to get our attention!  If you had been there you would have been on the floor laughing at the whole ordeal!

    I thought the sewer was bad until I looked at my greedy heart!             

A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others

will himself be refreshed. 

Proverbs 11:25

Answering your own Question

 

How many times has your child asked you a question,…… while doing the answer (the answer he wanted you to say)?  For example:  “Mom may i have a cookie?”…..while his hand is in the cookie jar…his fat fingers around a cookie!  Did really wait for an answer.  It was apparent what he wanted the answer to be.  Why ask…..if you have already set your mind in a direction of movement.

Here is another example….”Mom can we watch a movie?…… while you are already have the TV on, the movie in, and are past the preview!  Why ask, it is apparent your intentions.

We do that too.  I was reading this week about the last days of Jesus when this particular problem was shown to me….that it is nothing new…..we have been doing our own thing.  Asking permission….while in the process of the action.

Read with me……

When Jesus' followers saw what was going to happen, they said, "Lord, should we strike with our swords?"
And one of them struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear.
But Jesus answered, "No more of this!" And he touched the man's ear and healed him.

Luke 22:49-51

 

Do you like how this guy asked as he was doing his answer!!!  He did not really wait for an answer. He wanted to do it!  As it turned out……the he had the wrong answer! 

How often do we do that???

For example:   “Lord you want me to eat right….so you eat out at a restaurant without waiting for His answer….because you already had an answer in mind??

“Wow Lord, you want me to save money…..”Cha-ching…..you buy a great deal on a hand bag…..saving $45!  Somehow the other nine purses you have did not come into the question picture??

“Lord, if you don’t want me to buy this car…then send fire from heaven.  You look up in two nano seconds….see a clear sky….you turn to the car salesman and say….I’ll take it!”  You totally ignore the fact that your old car runs, though it is outdated and the clear coat is coming off.  You ignore the fact that the note will be making things tight.   You ignore every thing else that might have given you a different answer then the one in you head!

“Thank you Lord, for giving us a bonus….You must mean for us to get that boat i have been looking at….

There are a million examples that could fit this equation.  Many times they are personalized questions about different areas of your life or family decisions.  But how many times do we ask the question and NOT wait for the answer.  Just like this guy….that basically means you are taking things into your own hands sprinkled with spiritual fairy dust. 

Not only are we impatient to wait for the answers, but we are notorious for twisting the facts into a scriptural pretzel and selling it to ourselves with hot mustard dip!

I think the reason i saw this for what it was….is i have done it!  My challenge to you…..wait upon the Lord, look into His Word, & Listen to wisdom….. really…wait until you get HIs answer….it’s always best…then you won’t be cutting off people people ears by mistake!!

The more you seek Him and wait and listen…the less filling in the blanks you will do….Then you will be where you need to be waiting or answered…in the middle of His Will!

Don’t ask if you don’t want the answer!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Invisible Sin

Growing up we did not have a dishwasher!  I know that sorta “dates” me but that’s okay, because at the present moment…..i don’t have a dishwasher! So for the past four years i have returned to my childhood sudsy sink washing and rinsing old fashioned way of doing dishes.  I will say though i enjoy it so much more now than i did then!

The Lord gave me a Spiritual lesson the other day while doing the dishes…..i thought i would share it with you!  if you have never washed dishes by hand or had a “drain tray” as i call it, then you will be lost in this story. But don’t pull the stopper yet!

After so many years of doing dishes by hand, i have a routine down. First i put away the dry dishes if there are any sitting in the drain tray.  Then i empty the drain tray that is usually full of water by the time i finish all my dishes.  then i clean the sinks, stack the dishes in the way i want them in the water..plates first,then silverware, then glasses bowls etc.

When i was growing up we had the jumbo “drain tray”. I did a lot of dishes.  I could pile them high and tight without them falling.  But one thing i hated was cleaning the drain tray.  Because of constant use, it was always full of water.  Thus it got molded and nasty often.  It was gross to clean it….it was so bad eventually it was stained.  But i detested cleaning it.

Sooo, when I got married…..we lived in places that had dishwashers! Just imagine how thrilled i was!  Believe me…..i used it!  No more dishes by hand and nasty drain trays!  Well, many years have past, and in the house we have been in for the past four years does NOT have a dishwasher……so back to the old fashioned way.  But when i went to the store to buy the dreaded “drain tray” i decided two things, i would get a small one, and the tray part i wanted clear.  That way it would never get nasty…..or so i thought!

One day i was emptying the water out of the drain tray when i noticed the white knob “feet” of the cute blue thing that held the dishes…. were black!  How can this be?  The “drain tray” did not have mold…so how could there be mold on the feet of the dish rack that sat above it?

What i couldn’t see was the “clear slim” that had collected on the drain tray full of murky germs, though clearly invisible!  I got out the old ajax and cleaned the slim off and the black off the feet of the dish rack. 

Though i saw no mold on the drain tray itself, the evidence of it was on the feet that sat in it.  Though the slim was clear…it was still as deadly. So it is with sin.  I thought that just because i could not see the ugly black stuff that it was not there.  But it was there.. only disguised, but  it had left it’s nasty mark on the dish rack’s feet.

Just because you think your sin is invisible….it is leaving it’s ugly mark somewhere!  Your sin will find you out!  The enemy tries to make you think you are in the “clear” when really he is “sliming” you!  Before you know you it  your feet are nasty black with sin’s mold!

So, i encourage you today to look carefully at your life, be sure you don’t got your feet standing in “clear”…… “slime”! 

Check your feet to see if they are black!

Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin,

when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

James 1:15

Do You LOVE me?

 

Would you love me is i dyed my hair purple?

Would  you love me if i pierced something besides my ears?

Would you love me is i took a smoke?

Would you love me if i took a different view than you?

Would you love me if you found me dancing to the newest rock song?

Would you love me if you found me with a beer in my hand?

Would you love me is i let a colorful word loose?

Would you love me if i came home pregnant?

                                         Jesus did!

True love has NO limits, NO boundaries and NO lists!

                                 I Corinthians 13

a NOT Dave Ramsey Principal

 

It seems the big rage these days is Dave Ramsey this and Dave Ramsey that,… get out of debt at all costs.  Forget everyone and get out of debt.  While i have my own opinions about this modern craze…..I want to challenge you with a whole new thought……….

G E T    I N T O    D E B T !

The Bible actually says GET INTO DEBT!  I want to be so far in debt that i bust the bank!  We are actually supposed to be heavily in debt…..that is the debt of LOVE for one another!

Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to LOVE one another,

for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.

Romans 13:8

Mail your “LOVE” notes (payments of indebtedness) daily.

The “heavenly interest” will keep racking up!

A missed payment is a missed opportunity

A Promissory Note means….more LOVE is comin’!

A missed payment is a missed opportunity!

The Bible is the ATM where you get more LOVE  to spend

A Collection Agency is the devil…….he wants to take all the LOVE from you, so you don’t spill out on others.

----never talk to The Collection Agency!

Spiritual debt  IS  Financial Freedom!

The only way to get out of debt is to DIE!

LOVE everyone to death!

 

 

 

a NOT Dave Ramsey Principal

 

It seems the big rage these days is Dave Ramsey this and Dave Ramsey that,… get out of debt at all costs.  Forget everyone and get out of debt.  While i have my own opinions about this modern craze…..I want to challenge you with a whole new thought……….

G E T    I N T O    D E B T !

The Bible actually says GET INTO DEBT!  I want to be so far in debt that i bust the bank!  We are actually supposed to be heavily in debt…..that is the debt of LOVE for one another!

Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to LOVE one another,

for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.

Romans 13:8

Mail your “LOVE” notes (payments of indebtedness) daily.

The “heavenly interest” will keep racking up!

A missed payment is a missed opportunity

A Promissory Note means….more LOVE is comin’!

A missed payment is a missed opportunity!

The Bible is the ATM where you get more LOVE  to spend

A Collection Agency is the devil…….he wants to take all the LOVE from you, so you don’t spill out on others.

----never talk to The Collection Agency!

Spiritual debt  IS  Financial Freedom!

The only way to get out of debt is to DIE!

LOVE everyone to death!

 

 

 

The Lazy Warrior

 

I have been in war for along time.  When I first entered the war, I was skeptical about it.  I didn’t really see much happening, so I shrugged it off as unimportant. It is kind of like the security job for some, that all they do is nothing…

That is how I viewed my part in the war.  I did not have a big part, I was not on the front lines.  As a matter of fact, I seemed so unaware that it was as though I wasn’t in a war at all. 

As time went on, for various reasons, I became so complacent do to the lack of active fighting, that I forgot that I was even a warrior.  I was in the back lines anyway….

Not only did I become complacent, but I forgot how to use my weapons!  Or even think the weapons were important.  What a big mistake, because it is in that place, that the enemy can sneak up on you and capture you and take you hostage to his evil desires and make you slave to his agenda.

Christians, stand up!  There is a war!  And you are in it like it or not!  As a warrior I thought it was good enough to just read my Bible in the morning and I was “protected” for the day.  Not so! 

Fellow Soldiers, do you know what that is like?  It is like laying your sword down in front of you on the battle lines (in a real battle) and thinking that will guard you.  That is absurd!  Laughable even….no body would do that!

No!  A warrior, or soldier uses his sward .  He keeps it in his hands in battle and uses it constantly against the enemy.  That is how we are to be in Spiritual Warfare!  Don’t just lay your Bible out there and think that will guard  your heart, mind and mouth.  No!  the devil laughs at it, steps over it and seeks to devour you.

You must, pick up you Bible and use it like a sword against the enemy…the whole battle through, then you will have Victory as a Mighty Warrior!   Know your weapon well. Keep it with you at all times.  Use as needed.  Don’t go to battle empty handed!  God’s Word is our Weapon!

Don’t be a lazy Warrior

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.
  Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,
and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.
In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Ephesians 6:10-17

 

 

 

 

Graduated with Honors

 

Friday I sat on the hard concrete bleachers on the High school football field, eating bugs and feeling the hot breeze on my face.  Waiting with many other parents for the graduation ceremony to commence.  My middle son was among those robed graduates sitting in the middle of the field waiting to the same thing.

WOW! What an accomplishment!  13 years of rigorous study, constantly being pressured to learn something new….all the while remembering the already learned.  The mounds of homework to be sure you didn’t forget, or rather to be sure you didn’t have a life outside of the school door.  Or perhaps the teacher’s way of reminding you to bring her an apple the next day. 

The drudgery of the 180 days each year of rise and shine….way too early!!  The soggy vittles they call lunch will not be missed.  The joy of summers that ended way too soon, cut short by the ringing of the school bell.  Waiting at the bus stop on cold rainy days will now come to an end, as running to your locker only to find you forgot the combination.  Hiding from bullies on the playground and hope that your not found.  Being made fun of when you didn’t have the coolest back pack are now over.

You sit on a row with hundreds of other caper victims of the school of this world…..

All for what…..you spent all these years to sit in a smothering robe, with a dorky hat that keeps falling off.  You march in, take your seat, sit and listen to boring speeches, file up to get your piece of paper that says, “Tadaa!  You made it through”, with honers no less, then you toss your hat up in the air, only to pick up someone else's, go home and on Monday morning wake up to………

Go into your adult life with all you learned those 13 years of the grueling ritual of info in…info out.  For what purpose….to graduate someday.  But then what….

This is such a Spiritual metaphor if you will of our Christian journey.  If we had a “Spiritual Graduation” what would our diploma look like?  Would we graduate with honors?  Or would we even get a diploma at all????

One day we will…….

It is written: "'As surely as I live,' says the Lord, 'every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.'"
So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.  Romans 14:11-12

We have a teacher…… may we learn ever so diligently from Him!

A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.                             Luke 6:40

Servants of God, we do have a teacher, we are in school, and hopefully we are all seeking to “graduate” with honors……Honoring The King of our lives!  May God hand each one of us a “Spiritual Diploma” in heaven that says……….

"His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'  Matthew 25:21

Get to class……I hear the I hear the bell……don’t be late!

Conratulations

Joshua Aaron Wiggin

class of 2012

Love Notes

      Saturday I had a speaking engagement and what has become a routine is that my husband if he is home helps load the car with the needed items and boxes of books.  He turns on the car, gets the air and music running, fixes me some ice water for my trip.   This particular day was no different.  I took his car and was sitting in the driver’s seat while he leaned in the window and smiled at me.  He is so special I thought.  As I drove off I saw a piece of folded yellow tablet paper in the passenger seat.  And I thought “ahh, how sweet of my husband, he wrote me a love note for my special event.”  I had all kinds of sweetness flowing through my thoughts.  When I opened the piece of paper I was disappointed.  It was no love note at all…..or was it…..? 

It was an old grocery list….bread….milk…. eggs….apples…. In my disappointment I threw the paper on the floor.  Immediately the Lord rebuked me sternly. 

“All the things he does for you including the countless times he goes to the grocery store on his way home from work screams love for you!”  The Lord told me.  I was humbled….

So ladies, love your husbands!  Thank them, Thank God for them and look at your grocery list in a whole new way!

Swirling Thoughts Disappear!

 

last night i was home alone and so i put on my pajamas and took my net book up to my room.  Got all snuggled in my recliner with my favorite quilt and started a new book!  Writing one that is!  This book has been on my heart for some time….

I have been in the middle of another manuscript that is important, but it is a  harder piece of work and i just wanted to relax a bit…

I had the outline with the thoughts i had been carrying around in my head jotted down under each chapter….when all the sudden….

One of my boys needed some emergency intervention and so while i was trying to get up our kitty Stryper jumped on my key board and my document disappeared!  I could not find it….Sherman tried later to retrieve it……it’s gone, like a tornado ripped through my lap and destroyed all of it….

Sound familiar?  Last Spring tornadoes ripped through parts of Alabama and Tennessee just in our back yard so to speak.  Witnessing the devastation like i have never seen,  A book began in my heart….

A Season of rebuilding….(the title of the book) will have to be rebuilt!  I shook my head at the symbolism!  Did the Lord want me to remember many of these people lost everything!  Or is He telling me that there are no words to do what happened justice.  Was it a sign to go ahead?

The word t o r n a d o literally were ripped right out of my hands!  What do you think? 

I think when everything is lost….you see God more clearly!

I will be sure to turn on my “weather radio” when i begin to rebuild the document!