Cold All The Way To Our Souls

I have been so cold today, but so has everyone else who lives in Indiana and the surrounding states. The almanac said that this was going to be a hard winter but they didn't say that the north pole was moving down here.


When it is this cold no one wants to be outside so we hustle to and from our cars, getting inside as fast as we can. No one stops to chat. No one stops to be friendly. We stay in our homes. We hardly talk to anyone. The rest of the world tends to be far away from our thoughts. We become self absorbed and stop thinking of others the way God wants us to.

I think sometimes the cold just seeps in all the way to our souls. 

Proverbs 18:1

Common English Bible (CEB)

18 Unfriendly people look out for themselves...
  

Of course this is not the way God wants us to live. We need to let others into the warmth of a God led life. Letting others see how warm a God filled heart can be.

The other day a kind hearted family did just that...... 

I have a friend who cleans houses for a few families in our small community. On this day it was one of the coldest we have had. The wind was blowing and there was ice and snow covering the ground. My friend was cleaning this particular home in her stocking feet. She stepped outside on the porch to shake out a rug. As she was on the porch a gust of wind caught the door and slammed it shut. Guess what? The door was locked. Her phone, keys and purse were locked inside the house. Of course the family wasn't home either. This house sits way up on a hill. Pretty far away from the neighbors. What was my friend to do? Luckily her car was unlocked so she sat in it until the panic settled down and she could think clearly.

But as she sat there the cold settled into the car and she knew she had to do something. She decided she had no choice but to walk down the hill and over to the closest house. Now, it was no warmer than 2 degrees this day. She had no coat and, remember, no shoes. So you can imagine how cold she was. Makes me tear up just thinking about this. She could have frozen to death while we were all warm inside. 

It didn't take long for her toes to become numb. Thank goodness God led her to the right home. These people were home and immediately could see the danger of the situation. They warmed her up and called the owners of the home, where she had been cleaning, to get the code to the keypad that opened the garage door. They wouldn't let her leave until she could feel her toes again. Then they drove her back up the hill and made sure she got back into the house.

What if these people had been as cold hearted as the weather? 

1 John 3:16

The Message (MSG)

16-17 This is how we’ve come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love? It disappears. 

I thank the Lord that these wonderful people were there and that they didn't turn a cold shoulder to my friend. Could have been very bad for her if they had. Instead they acted like God would have wanted them to.

Even though it is cold. Even though we would like to just curl up in our homes and think about ourselves. Lets remember to show the love of God and have a warm heart instead of a cold shoulder.

Stay warm dear friends!

Blessings!

Procrastination!

It's snowing again, and again, school has been canceled for the day. I keep teasing that Riley will be in school, this year, until it is time to start next year. With all of these days that school has been put off, unfortunately I may be about right on this.  

That's the way life can be sometimes. We try putting things off, especially the ones we find to be taxing and not our favorite thing to do. You all know mine, laundry. The sad thing is when I do feel like doing it it is a lot larger pile than it needs to be.  If I would just stop procrastinating the job would be so  much easier.

How about you? What is your hang up? Taxes, grocery shopping, cleaning, exercising, etc? These are all very important and they are things we all need to do but there is something else that is very detrimental to our existence and to our eternity. And that is putting off our relationship with our heavenly Father.

So many people think that this is something that can be put off until they are ready. But what is sad about this is that there comes a time when it is just too late. Procrastinating in our spiritual lives can mean the difference between heaven or hell. Sorry to be so serious here but this is a very true fact.


The scriptures are pretty clear on this subject. John 3:16 is a verse that we are all familiar with but do we really understand what it is trying to tell us?  Or are you thinking, Oh Sherry is acting like the the fanatic who stands on the corner? The thing about this guy, though, is he wants the best for us. He has more courage than me, that is for sure.

Here is what this verse proclaims......


John 3:16-18

Common English Bible (CEB)

16 God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life. 


The message is clear here. Believing in Christ is our salvation. The next two verses explain this in even more detail.......


17 God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him isn’t judged; whoever doesn’t believe in him is already judged, because they don’t believe in the name of God’s only Son.

So in this world of procrastination, please, don't put this off. You don't have to be anything but who you are. God loves you just that way. All He needs from you, is belief. I know for a fact that there is no better feeling in the world than to find yourself right with God. 

I hope that you have this calming assurance. I am praying that you do!!!

Blessings!!

Inside Out

Titus 3:3-8

The Message (MSG)

3-8 It wasn’t so long ago that we ourselves were stupid and stubborn, dupes of sin, ordered every which way by our glands, going around with a chip on our shoulder, hated and hating back. But when God, our kind and loving Savior God, stepped in, he saved us from all that. It was all his doing; we had nothing to do with it. He gave us a good bath, and we came out of it new people, washed inside and out by the Holy Spirit. Our Savior Jesus poured out new life so generously. God’s gift has restored our relationship with him and given us back our lives. And there’s more life to come—an eternity of life!  

Luke 3:16

The Message (MSG)

16-17 But John intervened: “I’m baptizing you here in the river. The main character in this drama, to whom I’m a mere stagehand, will ignite the kingdom life, a fire, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out. He’s going to clean house—make a clean sweep of your lives. He’ll place everything true in its proper place before God; everything false he’ll put out with the trash to be burned.”

In both of these scriptures it talks about changing us from the inside out, not from the outside in. We humans sometimes are so much more worried about what we look like on the outside rather than what we are truly like on the inside.

It's kind of like taking care of our cars. We can wash them, vacuum them, detail them completely, but if we don't check the oil, fill them with gas, check the tires and keep them tuned up it makes no difference how clean they are. They will just be sitting in our driveways. 

There is another thing that I noticed from these readings. We do not have to change on our own. We can come to Christ as flawed we are. God loves us enough to take us "as is". When we except the gift, of Christ, the Holy Spirit comes to us. He helps us with the changes in our attitudes, the changes in our thinking of others, the changes in our actions, and helps us move towards being more and more Christ like on the inside, so that it shows in our actions on the outside.

Basically speaking the Holy Spirit is our conscience. Cleaning us and helping us move towards perfection. God sent His Spirit because He loves us and wants the best for us. There is a warning with this though. Rejecting or speaking evil of this gift, according to the scriptures, is unforgivable....

Matthew 12:31-32

New Century Version (NCV)

31 So I tell you, people can be forgiven for every sin and everything they say against God. But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.32 Anyone who speaks against the Son of Man can be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, now or in the future.

God is a big guy. Jesus is a tough guy. They can take our attitude, our anger, our doubts. But they cannot nor will not take the rejection of the gift of the Spirit.

The next time your feel your conscience speaking to you, be grateful. You have a God who wants you to be your best. How could we even question this. He gave us life. He gave us wisdom. He gave us love. He gave us His son. He gave us His Spirit. In other words He has given us all He can give.

Here's to feeling squeaky clean. Inside out!!!

Blessings!

Let's Do This!

We had been talking about moving Riley's room around for several days. For many reasons, but one major reason was that we couldn't clean behind his bed, (and believe me this was something that really needed to be done). Things had to be moved around to get his bed away from the wall. It has a built in book shelf as a head board. This makes it very hard to move so we just hadn't gotten the energy to do this yet. That is until yesterday.

While I was down in the kitchen I could hear that Riley was getting up, by the fact he we making noises in his room, and the next thing I know he is down stairs in the refrigerator getting Rodney a Starbucks Vanilla Coffee. I ask him what was going on. He said that Dad needed to get up so he needed his favorite drink. Looking back on it, I think it was bribery. A few minutes later here comes Rodney down the stairs, still very much in sleep mode. He ask me if I knew what was going on. "No, what?" I ask. "I guess we are moving Riley's room around today" he said. "All of the stuff that Riley can move is in the hallway". I just started laughing.

Apparently Riley was tired of waiting on us. So he started the ball rolling on his own, but he could only get so far. We had to help move the heavy stuff and we also had to get everything else moved back in so that we could get into our bedrooms, to sleep, last night.


Aren't we like that with God? We want something to happen and we want it now. God may have a different timing than us on this so we start the ball rolling without Him. We make a cluttered mess, with everything we can do. He then has to come in and move the heavy stuff and put everything back.


I wonder what God thinks of us on this? I laughed at the way Riley got us to do what he couldn't. Do you think God laughs at us? One thing is for sure. Riley needed us and knew he needed us, well at least he knew he needed Dad. He was the one with most of the muscle. We need God for the very same thing. He has all the muscle in the world. We should always depend on Him. We should always know we can count on Him. The people in the Psalms knew this.....

Psalm 33:20
Contemporary English Version (CEV)

20 We depend on you, Lord,
to help and protect us.


Psalm 124:8
Contemporary English Version (CEV)

8 The Lord made heaven and earth,
and he is the one
who sends us help.


We as humans are human. We do make messes. God is always there waiting to put things right even without a Starbucks coffee!

Blessings!


PS: This morning Riley came down to get another drink for Rodney. I wonder what he wants him to do now?

Permanently

Psalm 103:12

And as far as sunrise is from sunset,
    he has separated us from our sins.


I never tire of looking at God's sunrises, from the east, and sunsets, in the west. I think they are some of the most beautiful things in nature. (The picture here is a sunset we saw this evening.)

I also love the symbolism of them as well. 

God gives us each sunrise as a new beginning. He can hardly wait to see what we will do with all that He has bestowed on us  He loves spending the day with us. I can just see His anticipation as he waits for us to wake each and every morning. 

Then the sunsets! God gives us these as a time to settle down from of all that the day has brought.  A time to let go. A time to rest and renew for the next sunrise. 

Just as a Sunrise will never run into a Sunset, we Christians will not have to think about or even remember the things we would have changed from our day. God has promised to take our sins and short comings and separate them from us, permanently!  Just as far as the east is from the west. As far as a sunset is from a sunrise.

God's permanent is not like the worlds. Our version of permanent is we keep something or do something only until we tire of it. Then we change it. Or we cover our gray hair with a "permanent" hair color, but it doesn't last.  Even a permanent marker can be cleaned up if you do it right, Maybe not out of clothes, but off of hard surfaces. I cleaned up a boo boo, once, that Riley did on a wooden piece of furniture. Here on this earth nothing stays the same, everything changes.

But God's promises never, ever change. We can always count on this fact. He forgives our sins and never even thinks about them again. He justifies us and we become part of His family where He never lets us go. He loves and takes care of us, forever. So we not only have all the beauty around us but we have the complete peace God gives as well. Amazing huh?

Thank you God!

So as you wake up to the sunrise in the morning I hope you wake up with the peace that only God can give!

Blessings!!