I spent today like I spend most days off work, with my dog. This week so far has been particularly cold so long walks were out of the question. But today when I stepped outside I was pleasantly surprised by a warm breeze and a bright sun. This warmth encouraged me to take my dog all over town; we went through the snow on some hiking trails I hadn’t explored in years, and when we finally turned to go home it wasn’t with an anxious heart to get back inside, it was with a satisfied step which showed how nice a time we had had. This walk made me think how just a little warmth can go a long way. The warm air outside encouraged me to walk farther and do new things just like the warm encouragement from a pearson can make us want to continue on and take another step. The word encouragement is defined as the action of giving someone support, confidence or hope. In life we often face ‘cold’ days, times when the sun doesn’t shine and everywhere we turn we are hit by a blast of ice crystals. In these times it’s amazing how one person can make a difference. One person can take that day and either make it better or worse. When someone feels low and we try to lift them up, wheather we know them or not, we make God smile. That’s why God made so many people He knew we would need each other when the road grew too long. A word of support is like a warm breeze, it makes you want to add more footprints to the path of your story instead of stopping where you are. A simple “it’s going to be okay” or “you can do it” can be just what we need to carry on. So always try to be encouraging, who knows, your words may be the difference between someone’s success or failure, so choose them wisely and make them kind and encouraging.
Galatians 6:2 Carry each other’s burdens, in this way fulfilling the law of Christ.
Tag: Love
A touch without a feel
When we are going to church, praying, reading our Bible but we feel nothing; we are touching God but not feeling Him. We all go through these ‘cold wars’ where our fire for God has burned low, if not completely out but it’s when we stop fighting during these wars that we are in trouble. We must fight to feel God again, to regain our connection to Him. We must push harder and seek deeper lest we lose all touch and feel of Him. We must fight until our ‘cold war’ heats up and we are on fire for Him again. So we must keep reaching out and touching God with the knowledge that He is reaching back; and though our grip keeps slipping we must try again and again until we feel His hand holding us.
As the old song goes, ‘reach out to Jesus He’s reaching out to you.’ Don’t be afraid that you’ll never find your fire again, just keep diligently searching and you will eventually see that Jesus never left you no matter how cold you felt. He was always there waiting for your flame to rekindle and burn again, and yes, He was praying for you through the battle and helping you every time you let Him. So burn on little candle and let your light reach all around you starting them on fire too. If you put enough candles together soon you have a blazing inferno and that light will continue to reach until the world is on fire for Jesus.
The gift not under the tree
At Christmas time we think so much about gifts; giving and receiving. C.S. Lewis says that the greatest sacrifice was not on the cross but in the Manger. God reducing himself to a human baby to save the world. We mostly think of Jesus Himself when we think of Christmas, we don’t always acknowledge the sacrifice that God went through. There is no one on this earth who knows more love than a parent’s child, (Weather natural born or adopted).
Jesus is in truth an only child. Being one myself I know what that means. It means that there is no one else for your parent to share their love with other than you. You are top on their list and are more valued than anyone else. Now think, God gave His most valued treasure to us to be mocked, beaten and murdered by us. Every tear Jesus shed God would have felt, every lash, every nail. I know that God turned His face away because of the sin Jesus took for us, but that doesn’t mean His heart wasn’t in agony for His beloved son.
No one I know would sacrifice their child for anyone, let alone a world that mocked and hated them. So as God placed His child in Mary’s arms, knowing what would befall Him, He gave up the center of His heart to save us.
Made new
The ocean uses everything in it for the benefit of the ones living in it. One of my favorite childhood pastimes was searching for seaglass. Sea glass is beautiful and highly coveted by beach combers, but do you realize what sea glass is? It’s trash, bits of discarded glass and pottery that some lazy person has dropped on the beach or in the Ocean instead of taking it to the garbage. After being discarded this trash is thrown and tossed and caressed and formed by the sea. Let me repeat that. This garbage is formed into something beautiful and sought after.
We are like sea glass. In truth most people start off pretty worthless, and then God takes them. There is tossing and rough beatings getting us to our potential but in the center of that is a gentle guiding hand and in the end we are beautiful and refined.
As the sea makes broken bottles into shimmering crystals, God makes broken people into strong warriors.
Mistake
You are being yourself and a person questions your character, your dream, what you are doing, your goals and suddenly your concerned. Maybe they’re right, this person is a stronger Chritian than you are, they work at food drives and go on missions trips and live the Christian life that seems to be right. So are you wrong?
Guess what, what that person thinks or says, does not matter! Yikes, I know right, can you say that about someone else who is a brother or sister in Christ? Yes you can. Constructive criticism is a good thing but these people don’t know what your life is supposed to be all about. They don’t know who God made you to be. I once heard it said that life is a guessing game. And it’s true. Even if you’re a Christian you don’t know what your life is meant to be, and you look at the options guessing, wondering which is right; the difference between a Christian guessing and a non-Christian guessing is the Christian knows the one who knows the answers. Do you know why God gave Moses a burning bush? Because he would never have done what God needed him to do without such a sure sign. Even after all of the wonders God did through him when God asked him to go talk to Pharoh again Moses said, “oh, I don’t know God, even your own people won’t listen to me so why should Pharoh?” God stood there and shook His head, ” seriously Moses? We’re going through this self doubt thing again? What more do I have to do to show you I have this under control?” Then God gave in and again sent Arron to help but the miracles were done through Moses. Do you have any idea how many people told Moses he was a failure, he was wrong, he was doing the wrong things? I bet Moses said to himself more than once, ‘why didn’t I ignore that bush and keep going? I had a good, quiet life as a shepherd and now I’m stuck in the desert with all these complaining, negative people!’ However God had a big plan for Moses. Moses wasn’t a dreamer, that was Joseph, Moses never dreamed of doing all the things he did, but God had planned on it and was leading him to the right bush at the right time. Not everybody can see your potential and they may be down on you because they just don’t get it. Moses simply followed what he saw God leading him to do and when he didn’t see he prayed and God said ‘see that staff of wood in your hand? Stretch it out toward the sea.’ Guess what, that sea parted right down the middle and never again has anyone seen anything like it, even Pharohs sorcerers couldn’t copy that one.
So ignore negative voices and don’t take anything to heart that sounds like it’s not from God. He knows His dream for you, no one else does. Thank you Jesus for you dream for me. Amen.
Small flame
Inside us all is a candle burning. It’s a candle lit to help guide us through the darkness in this life. Our candle is called Savior, Healer, Hope, Friend, lamb, Jesus, Son of God.
If we do not acknowledge our candle it will grow dim and someday even go out, but it is a candle that will not forsake us and the millisecond we are ready for that candle again it will relight and shine through us as brightly as it first did, maybe even brighter.
Beauty
Everyone probably knows the song you are so beautiful; but imagine that as the love song that God sings to you. I don’t know about you but I want God to think I’m beautiful, on the inside. I want God to smile down and sing ‘you are so beautiful to me,’ with an angel choir as back up obviously.
To be seen as beautiful by your father is a wonderful thing. Don’t you think?
To God we are beautiful when we screw up, when we fail, when we try, when we are hurt, broken or sad. The times when we may seem ugly to the people around us we are still beautiful to God. He loves our inglorious messes, He knows how hard we have struggled and to Him the struggle is beautiful because we have not given up. To God a simple act of kindness is more beautiful than fireworks. Opening the door for a person who has too many things to carry, donating a jacket to a homeless shelter, working the mission field. God sees all works for Him as beautiful. He finds it beautiful when you pray for your neighbors and offer a word of encouragement on a friend’s facebook page. It’s not hard to be beautiful to God; we were born beautiful to Him. We just have to keep being Jesus to the world and maybe then the world too will see our beauty.
Who is Grace?
According to the richness of His grace.-Ephesians 1:7
What a statement, the richness of God’s grace. Richness that if put into gold or gems would overflow the ocean and fill the greatness of the deserts. God’s grace is the reason we all have a chance to get into his paradise; God’s grace is the reason we always have someone to turn to and the reason life has worth; God’s grace is never ending. Grace is defined as the free and unmerited favor of God, as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings. When you look at the definition of grace it’s a single sentence statement, which seems far too simple. Grace, God’s grace is simple; it’s straightforward, God loves us! His grace is unmerited, He gives us blessings, He saves ALL of us and ALL of us are sinners who need to be saved! There is no clincher, there is no pay back in the end, God is abundant in grace and in His grace is mercy. Grace and mercy go together, why should the God who knows everything about us give us blessings? He knows what we’ve done, what we’ve thought and He knows we deserve punishment, but instead He is merciful and blesses us through His richness of grace. That’s our Father who loves us, our daddy who we cry out to, He is all-powerful and full of mercy and grace.
The love of Christ
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?- Romans 8:35
Many things can separate us from the love of friends, neighbors, spouses and even family. But nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. We are His and He is ours. No matter what we do or say, even if we are not Christians God loves us. Just because you can’t see the sun doesn’t mean it’s not there. God loves us! All of us! And no one and no thing can change that. Not even we can change that. We may want God to leave us be at times, and want to do things our way without having to consider what His will might be, but even when we are like that God stays close and waits until we see that we need Him and He knows best; and all the time He is waiting on us He is loving us, because nothing can separate us from the love of Christ!
Carried in the cross 