God's Love

What is God’s love to you? To me it is like a solid steady oak tree. It is always there covering us with its shade and offering us peaceful music as the wind blows through the leaves. Since everyone has their own description of God’s love how do we show this to others? Jesus says the greatest commandment is to love the Lord with all of your heart, all of your mind, all of your soul, and all of your strength. He also says the next greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:30-31). The only way to love your neighbor as yourself is to be a servant to them. If we are hungry, we get something to eat. Why wouldn’t we also fix food for the sick and needy? If we need clothes, we go shopping. Why wouldn’t we shop for others too? A servants attitude does not come over night (I really hoped it would). We have to practice and pray every day. It is not natural for us to put our own needs to the side, so serving will feel very odd at first. This is a life long journey to become more like Christ.

Christ is Perfect

Christ was perfect, we are not.
What does this mean to you? Once we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior, we know this means he was a perfect sacrifice for our sins. He was perfect, but still paid the price for our sins. This means we do not have to do anything other than accept His grace and we will be saved. But what happens after we are saved. Do we continue to act the same or do the same things as before? No. We are to model ourselves after Christ. How do we do this? I struggle with this every day! I have heard for years that we are to die to ourselves every day, but don’t think I truly understood this until a few days ago. Even though I am saved and know that grace alone is what saved me, I thought I could work hard and become this perfect example of a Christian. So many times we try to model ourselves after someone we think is a good Christian, but they are still human and will never be perfect. “Suzie the Sunday school teacher” battles with sin just like everyone else. Our society is so caught up in being perfect and achieving goals that we often find someone that we think is a great example and try to imitate their life. There is only one life we should imitate – Christ. How can we imitate Him? We have to spend time listening to Him and spend time reading about His life. He ate, drank, and slept just like us. He walked on this earth! How awesome is it that our God actually knows exactly what it feels like to be us! The first step to becoming like Christ is realizing we can’t do anything on our own. Our best is still rubbish to God unless we allow Him to use us. We have to give Him all of our sins and failures and ask Him to make us whole and use us every day. We also have to ask Him to show us areas we need to submit to Him. This is a truly never ending process. Once we submit one area to Him, He will reveal more and more areas of our lives that we still try to control. If we ever start to think, “Wow, I did a great job,” (I am guilty of this), God will show us we really haven’t accomplished anything because pride has taken over and we need to start over by submitting our pride to Him. We are works in process until the day we finally see Christ face to face!

"So get rid of your old self, which amde you live as you used to; the old self that was being destroyed by its deceitful desires. Your hearts and minds must be made completely new, and you must put on the new self, which is created in God's likeness and reveals itself in the true life that is upright and holy." Ephesians 4:22-24

“Without the spirit of God, we can do nothing. We are ships without wind. We are useless.” Charles Spurgeon

God is Calling

What has God called you to do today, tomorrow, or with your entire life? Where and how can you serve Him? If you don’t know the answer to these questions, it is ok. You can answer this by first starting with a relationship with God. When you have a relationship with Him, He will show you where and how to serve Him. It may be as simple as sending a card to a friend in need or something as complex and committing as becoming a missionary, but God has a plan for you. He created us all in our own unique way to serve Him. There may be someone that will never hear of the saving grace of Christ because you chose not to use the gifts He gave you. You have talents that no one else has and will be able to reach people that no one else could. Will you choose to answer when God calls?

“Training your body helps you in some ways, but serving God helps you in every way by bringing you blessings in this life and in the future life too.” 1 Timothy 4:8

Quiet Time

Quiet time, what does that mean to you? Most of my life I have been told we are to have a quiet time with God. I thought this meant to take time each day to read the Bible and pray. While this time can be used for that, the majority of the time should be spent being quiet and waiting to hear from God. I was convicted of not being quiet this weekend. I heard someone on the radio say we should spend our quiet time waiting to hear what God has to say. If we don’t hear Him, we should read the Bible and ask Him to speak to us through His written word! I love to talk, so therefore, I spent my quiet time talking and not listening. My favorite verse is “Be still and know I am God,” but I wasn’t doing that at all! I challenge each of you to find a quiet place and ask God to speak to you and then actually get quiet and still and listen to what He has to say. It may just surprise how clear His voice will be!

“Be still and know that I am God” Psalm 46:10

A Flower in the Rubble

I am sure you have all seen pictures of the devastation from the earth quake in Haiti. We can either focus on the tragedy and death or we can find the bright spots in this sad situation. I have read reports of orphanages being the only building not touched and of people being found alive and unhurt in the bottom of crumbled buildings. We can also apply this to our own lives. When faced with a terrible situation we can either choose to dwell on it or we can find the bright spot and hopefully show someone God’s love. When we allow God to guide us through an explosive situation, He will defuse it every time!

For the Lord God is our sun and our shield. He gives us grace and glory. The LORD will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right. Psalm 84:11 NLT

Our words do matter

So many times we say things and have no idea the words will have an everlasting impact on someone. When I was in high school , I had one teacher that loved telling us stories about her personal life. Most of the time I rolled my eyes and really didn't pay attention. One day I decided to listen and received advice that I still remember 13 years later. She said she and her husband wanted their children to see them show each other affection. For example, her husband always put his arm around her during church. This may sound very simple, but watch your children's faces when they see their parents love each other. I encourage you to show your children how much you love your spouse. This can also be applied to our relationship with Christ. Let your children see you reading the Bible and praying.

"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6

We can Change the World!

Have you ever thought the world is so bad there is no way we could change it? Well, we can change the world and it starts with you and me. We have to start by changing our own thoughts and hearts. We have to try and see the good in people and treat them the way we want to be treated. This sounds so simple, but it is much harder than you think. My first response when someone mistreats me is to lash out. I am really working hard to see their thoughts instead of just actions. This kind of thinking makes it much easier to deal with people, but does hurt when we see what some people have had to deal with. Children should never wonder where their next meal is coming from or if their parents are coming back, but thousands of children have these very thoughts daily! We can’t change the world without starting in our inner circle of friends. We all know at least one person that could use an encouraging word or just to hear God loves them! It would be a great start to changing the world if everyone that reads this email would tell one person about Christ! You could also ask a stranger if they have any prayer requests. The look on their faces is worth it!

2 Timothy 4:1-2 “I charge thee in the sight of God and of Christ Jesus, who shall judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be urgent in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.”