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There ARE going to be empty branches
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There ARE going to be empty branches

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When I go camping I love having a spot that is surrounded by trees because the trees can feel……almost magical. Have you ever taken note of the delicate work of each branch? Some full of leaves, some of flowers, some bare of anything growing.

What massive, living creations trees are; they don’t think, they don’t feel, but they are still alive.

Imagine, as the tree grows it feels each branch grow out and form flowers, berries, leaves. The tree feels joy, even pride as it reaches toward the sun. Suddenly a branch feels wrong. It feels bare. The tree works hard to grow something, anything from this branch but it remains without addition. The tree tries another branch and finds it also unwilling to yeild. Confused, the tree asks God why some of it’s branches are bare.

God gently replies:

“Not everything you try will grow and succeed. Do not focus on these branches, instead focus on the branches that are blossoming and blooming. Please do not be descouraged by the feeling these leafless branches bring, wait and see what these empty branches add to your life.”

Not everything we try will succeed. Some things we simply cannot do, and some things we are not meant to do; but do not focus on these empty branches. Allow them to be signs that we tried, even if nothing produced from the attempt.

Focus on your growing leaves and flowers, allow them to encourage you to branch out and once again try something new. It might succeed, it might fail, but God is there for us even as we try. And remeber, the best branches to hang a swing from are empty ones.

In other words, focus on your successes and let them encourage you, but do not hate your misadventures because they have a purpose too; and in everything God has a purpose and a reason.

Illogical Miracles
Blog · Christianity · Devotional · dreams do come true · encouragement · Jesus · searching

Illogical Miracles

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When people think Star Trek (the original) two names come to mind..Kirk and Spock.
As all of you who have watched any of the Star Trek shows or movies know, spock’s race of alien believe fully in logic. In one part of one of the movies, Spock states that miracles do not exist because they are illogical. That made me think. Miracles ARE illogical. If miracles made sense then we could figure out how to do them ourselves. GOD alone can do miracles.
I do believe that God can use people to help Him do miracles, but we cannot do them through our own power. Miracles are miracles because only God can do them, it is miraculous because it makes no sense, it is unexplainable and it is amazing. I love seeing God do crazy things. We Christians call it “wow God moments.”
As my Grandfather says, “But God.”
It was impossible to be healed…but God.
The dream was too far beyond her reach….but God.
The Children of Israel had no way out…but God.
Daniel was in the lion’s den…but God.
The fire was heated 10 times the normal temperature and no one could survive that…..but God.
I am too much of a sinner for God to love me….but God…so loved the world that He gave His one and only son. Too lost to be found? Too hurt to be healed? Too dirty to be cleaned? Too scared? Too weak? Too broken? …..But God.
GOD IS ILLOGICAL! That is just how He operates. If He were logical none of us would stand a chance in this world because He would be limited to what WE could understand.
I adore my God who makes no sense to those who do not know Him. I also love His illogical, wonderful, crazy, insane, awesome miracles. Without them we would have dull, logical lives.

Who AM I?
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Who AM I?

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Who am I?
How often do we ask this?
We stop and look at our lives, or look at ourselves in the mirror and ask, who am I?
They say discovering yourself is a journey that never ends, perhaps that is why we constantly ask ourselves who we are.
But perhaps we are asking the wrong question. Instead of asking ‘who am I?’ We should be asking, ( wait for it) ‘who is Jesus?’
I know you all saw that coming, but that does not change the necessity of the question. Examining yourself is a good thing. Sometimes God draws us to self examination to show us that He is ready to change where we are. Other times we may realize we want to become better people, and that makes God happy too. Don’t over think it though. The Holy Spirit will guide you, but if your mind is whirring the noise might block out the Holy Spirit’s voice. First think about who Jesus is and how Jesus acts.
Jesus is the son of God. We are told we are also God’s children.
Jesus went straight to God when He had a problem, a joy, a heartache, and simply to spend time with Him. Do you run to God with everything or try to fix it yourself first?
Jesus is healer, provider, hard worker, patient beyond belief and so many more things that it would take three pages to list them all. Note that Jesus not only was a healer like no one else, but He also was a carpenter. So if you are a lawyer or a retail clerk you may still very well be doing God’s will. Jesus is the perfect…if not a little more perfect than we humans can pull off….example of a life well lived and if you are striving to be Him you have the right kind of Goal. So to recap.
Strive to be like Jesus
Don’t doubt your value or the value of what you are doing
Trust God
Listen for and to the Holy Spirit

Dear God
Please touch the people who are wondering who they are and where they belong with your wisdom and guidance. Please show them your power and perfect plan. Or at least as much of your plan as you can show them at this time. Thank you for all you do and for the perfect blue print of Jesus who shows us how to live. Amen

Monsters like me
Blog · Christianity · Devotional · encouragement · free · Jesus · searching

Monsters like me

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How would you classify a monster?
A wild haired human-like creature, with glowing eyes staring at you from behind rusted steel bars.
A four legged animal (ish) thing with long fangs and a thick chain holding it to the ground as it snarls.
How about a great dragon puffing out smoke and screaming out fire from the contains of it’s cave?
Or would you say me? I am the monster. No one understands the pain holding me behind these rusted bars, the glow in my eyes are simply tears. I snarl out of fear as my guilt holds me to the ground, and my shame keeps me bound. The puffs of smoke are to hide behind, the scream of fire simply a scream of need. No one gets me. Everyone feels this way at one time or another. No one gets me. It is true. No person can possibly get you, the true you, the real you. You think if you are exposed as the true person you are, those around you will see the monster and run. But Jesus has seen that monster. As you lean back and cower in the dark, dank corner of your cage fearing the light; Jesus comes and reaches out a hand to touch you. The brilliance of His presence is almost agonizing, as you hear all the people who have ever brought you down speak into your mind once again; because the pain they have left is no longer hidden in the dark as Jesus draws it to the light. The steel chains burn as Jesus reaches forward and points to your hand. You look down at your clenched fist and slowly hand your fist to Jesus. He gently unfolds your fingers and takes the keys to your chains and cage out of your hand. He unlocks you and carries you out into the sun and suddenly you realize, you are not the monster that you saw, and you see that you are the one who locked yourself in that cage. Your emotions allowed everything anyone ever said about you to make you feel unlovable, so much so that you locked yourself away. Allow Jesus to take the keys and set you free. Permit His love to burn away the fear and pain. He is not judging you, He loves you. Trust Him. You are not a monster. You ARE a child of God.

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I’ve got the blood of an innocent man all over me-Petra
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I’ve got the blood of an innocent man all over me-Petra

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When a dramatic, violent death occurs in Anime there is often a painful scene where blood splashes across the protagonists face; it is almost if not absolutely symbolic of the horror, the suffering that is happening. The blood could go anywhere but it hits the face. Why? Because your face is your identity, and now the identity is marred with death.
We seem to avoid the blood of the cross. Oh we sing about it and we read the passage about it, but we like to skip ahead and get to the resurrection. The bright, clean, pure resurrection. We act as if that is the most important part of the story. I can’t help but wonder if it is the crown of thorns, the lashing, the pain, sorrow, blood and tears that are the most important parts.
We drink the blood at communion but that sweet juice does not reflect the warm, thick, salty tang of real blood. If you feel sick I don’t blame you, that is how you would feel if you drank blood.
The cross was not pretty, not clean, not all put together. It was messy, dirty, smelly and horror to the first degree.
Many were crucified but only one was whipped until nearly dead, forced to carry a cross, nailed to that cross and filled with the disgust of the worlds sins.
Even though three days later He rose, we must never forget the crown of thorns which He chose to wear and the wooden throne which read ‘king of the Jews’.

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Chaos
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Chaos

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Out of the chaos come the best stories.
Think about the greats. Tolkien, Lewis, Dickens, Vern, Stevenson, so on. The main theme of most of their stories is chaos. War, poverty, destruction, and the aftermath of all of the above. And out of these horrors come stories that touch people’s hearts. Stories that soon become legends in their own right; stories that guide you down a path laden with dark, crumbling caverns and forests only to emerge at the entrance to magnificent palaces and lands filled with magic and faeries.
Most stories have at least a moment of chaos that leads the protagonist to the right place at the right time so they can be there when the world needs them, or at least when the author needs them.
If we allow God to lead us through the chaos times in our lives we will find ourselves in the right place, at the right time when the author of the world needs us. And we will find after all the struggles that the grand palace and the land of magic was worth every dark, crumbling cavern we had to climb through; because God knows the end of the last chapter and He is guiding us on the best path to reach the apex of our lives where we will stand undefeated and look behind us to see the gentle, powerful hand that was leading us all along.

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Enough light?
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Enough light?

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Stormie Omartan wrote a book titled ‘just enough light for the step I’m on.’
The book itself I have not yet read, but the title has clung in my mind.
How often do we go through times like that? Days when we feel like we only have the dull beam of a dying flashlight guiding us, just enough light to see directly in front of us and that is it. We may even feel like that has been our whole lives, just enough, never more, never less. The point of the very dark and invisible path ahead is Faith. Would we need an all knowing God if we were all knowing ourselves? God could have given us a complete outline of what our lives would be but He knew that if we knew all we would go through we couldn’t handle it. Our free will also comes into play here. If God had given us an exact road map the decisions we made ( good or bad) would not have happened because they were not part of our map.
We have only enough light so we step out trusting in God, and even when we fall He catches us and lets us learn from our mistakes.
We would not be people, with thought and choice, if we had an exact path. Yes God has a path for all of us and a destiny and an end result, but a lot of what gets us where we are going is our decisions. It may be a hard road or an easy road depending on our choices. Sometimes we may even not end up where God plans for us to be because our decisions lead us elsewhere, but He allows us to be real and to make our choices without dictation. Jesus directs us. Not controls us, directs. He lets us choose where we will go but He still guides us to keep us safe.
We have just enough light to see the path and to somewhat make out where each path may go when we reach a crossroads.
Walking a dim path with Jesus is the same as if we were walking in brilliant, full sunshine.
Walking a dim path without Jesus is simply a good way to get lost.

Still a slave
Blog · Christianity · Devotional · encouragement · free · Jesus · searching

Still a slave

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They say we are all prisoners of this world, but when we become Christians we are not; only through Christ are we free from this world so why do we refuse our freedom.

We are like slaves who get so used to their masters that they can’t leave them. This world abuses us, neglects us, starves us, beats us and yet we are so used to it that we refuse to be free from it.
Jesus is right there saying ‘follow me and I will show you how to be free.’ And yet we are sitting back, clinging to this familiar world, refusing to budge because freedom scares us. As soldiers say, true freedom you have to work for and fight for. We are constantly having to fight against the slave master of this world because he knows we are afraid and he knows it’s easy to seduce us into a sense of complacency where we fall into his clutches. But Jesus is stronger than the evil and He is fighting on our side.
No matter how long it takes no matter how hard we fight against Him Jesus will always be there with a nail scarred hand stretched out toward us, pulling us out of our prison and showing us the way of the free.
‘My chains are gone, I’ve been set free. My God, my savior has ransomed me and like a flood his mercy rains. Unending love, amazing grace.’-Casting Crowns

Do you love me?
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Do you love me?

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How many people here love the play fiddler on the roof?
Okay. How many of you remember the song ‘do you love me’?
Tevye asks his wife if she loves him and she responds-
Golde: Do I love you? For twenty-five years, I’ve washed your clothes, Cooked your meals, cleaned your house, Given you children, milked the cow.
Tevye: But do you love me?

How often do we work for God, suffer for God, take great strains to please God but don’t actually love Him? When we think about it if God set us on a perverbial mountain top with everything we ever begged for, searched for and longed for and then He just left, would we miss Him? Would we miss our times talking with Him? Worshiping Him? Being His friend?
Jesus wants a relationship, not a dictatorship. We can’t sit on our throne and tell our king what we want from Him, then complain when He isn’t fast enough or doesn’t do exactly what we wanted and not exspect Him to begin to feel unloved. We need to give the throne back to Jesus and sit at His feet just loving His presence.
So, do we love Jesus or do we love what He offers? Heaven, blessings, so on. If He left today would you miss Him? Would we notice He was gone?
In a time when we need to be remembering love remember to love the one who loves you more than anyone else ever can.

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How often do we feel we are going the wrong way when we are really going the only way?
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How often do we feel we are going the wrong way when we are really going the only way?

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How often do we feel we are going the wrong way when we are really going the only way?

I wonder how often we are truly following God and His plan and the devil comes up behind us and covers our eyes making us think we are going the wrong way. How often do we stop and change course because the devil has blinded us to the path?
God is fighting for us. That doesn’t just mean in our stead He is also fighting to keep us. As God is directing our paths we constantly have the devil telling us we are going the wrong way; that we aren’t following God but are following ourselves, even though we know that is not true.
Sometimes when God is quiet the devil gets very very loud and that can confuse us. But if we focus on God and pray, even if we don’t hear God He can send us a feeling to His direction. Sometimes in the heart racking sobs the unbelievable peace that hits you is God answering you. Sometimes in the wistful joy it’s the pang of uncertainty that is God saying, “be careful.” I have no answer to the question of, “what do I do God?” Because I am not you and only you can know what God is saying to you. It’s that still small voice; that impossible whisper that guides us. It can be so hard to hear, but don’t lose heart because Jesus knows what He is doing with you and He will show you the next safe place to put your foot.

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