Month: January 2017

“Instinctively His! A lesson from a squirrel.”

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As I sit here working on another writing project I glance out my window to ponder a thought.  Upon doing so, a squirrel captures my attention and I am altogether fascinated by what I see.  He is hopping in mid-air from branch to branch without what seems to be care or thought in the world.

What I mean is he doesn’t stop to measure the distance to see if he can make it, nor does he seem to contemplate the physics involved that would put a web-slinging Spiderman to shame as he sails through the air, grabbing hold of the next limb, and going again with ease of effort.

Instinctively he knows and is wired to map out the trees and to venture through them without slip or fail in a matter of seconds.

Every creature of God has ingrained instincts.  We are all born with a sense of knowing.  For some those senses are geared toward survival and protection.  Some naturally know how camouflage to ward of predators or to find food.  Others are excellent skill building machines that know how to make stable houses for their families in the harshest of climates.

Back to our friend the squirrel.  As he meanders through the trees with his ingrained knowing, not worrying or stressing over life, I must ask, dear child of God, are we navigating life with the same confidence?  He, the squirrel, is wired to know what to do and how to live by what’s inside of him.  What of us?

The Bible tells us, “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world,” (1 John 4:4).   As we are going about life we are to know to whom we belong.  “You are of God!” the Word tells us.  Therefore, because of our holy lineage; because of how we are wired through the blood of Jesus Christ, you and I are to instinctively operate like the “greater” is in you.

When faced with the adversities of life our holy intuitiveness should kick in; faith should carry us into our spiritual survival mode and say, “Hey, wait a minute!  I am more than this!  I won’t give in!  I won’t quit!  I KNOW to whom I belong!  I KNOW He that is on the inside of me, and He is greater than anything and everything I am facing!”

Our friend the squirrel went from branch to branch without worrying because he knew what was inside of him.  Do you know Who is in you today?  If you are a child of God you have the greatest living inside of you and you have to instinctively know within yourself that you are His.  Let that knowing empower you as you swing through the trees of life today.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

“Singing in the Rain!”

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Today, like most days here lately, it’s rainy, dreary and of the dismal sort.  It’s the kind of cold, wet rain that settles down in your bones which you can’t seem to warm up from.  It makes you want to crawl back under the covers and wait for a better day.

But real life is here with a call each and every day that must be answered, compelling us to rise and get going no matter what the weather is outside.  Answering that call on a  morning such as this, I remember one day when I drove across the highway to take my daughter to her college campus.  On the way home I saw something that put a smile on my face.  A man was walking in the rain with a bright orange raincoat.  He was literally bouncing along with happiness in his steps.  His mouth was moving and he appeared to be singing.  It was as if he was dictating his day; as if he was telling the rain he was not going to let the dreariness get him down.

Oh, how true does that ring out in life?  How many dreary situations have kept us from enjoying the day; from enjoying each and every moment God has given us above ground?  Unfortunately, as life goes on we find that every day is not peaches and cream.  Times of trouble and hardship can arouse the rainy day blues in anybody.

Psalm 137:4 asks, “How shall we sing the LORD’S song in a strange land?”  How many times have we felt it hard to work up the happiness inside when going through difficult times?  But Psalm 43:5 declares, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.”

In other words, Sing in the Rain!  

I feel like getting on board with the attitude of the guy in the orange raincoat.  There you can catch me Singing in the Rain today, too.  After all, we still have a reason to praise God no matter what.  My hope for this day and every day is in Him.  

God Bless!

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“Shaped by God”

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My Project 83-001

We are now two days into our New Year.  This is a time when people feel a release of the old year falling away and with that, newness springs to the foreground declaring better for the year to come.  Here in America there are two prominent items on almost everyone’s list that receive the most attention for declaration of newness in the year to come: bodily exercise and organization.  Throughout all the holiday festivities and the preparing of the celebrations those things have been packed away in a small corner of the mind and forgotten about.

Think about it.  We have all of these holiday celebrations back to back that have strong emphasis on food (as if we needed a reason to put emphasis on it).  Then, think about all the hustle and hubbub of making sure every detail falls into place.  As a matter of fact, let’s roll the clock back a little further to the time of school going back into session.  From then on it seems one rushes through the whole fall season and winter celebrations – eating, and because of all the rushing, becoming all the more disorganized.

So, the New Year has arrived and we’ve made it through, but left in its wake is all the clutter, chaos, and extras that we have either packed on or let go of.  It is at this very point one resolves that it has to be better than this.  “I can’t take this anymore!  I have to do something about it.”

Unfortunately, for any positive change to take place there has to be a yielding first.  Uh oh, that’s where those resolutions and declarations begin to crumble.  Soon they will be packed away and not thought of again until we are in the hustle and bustle of the next holiday season.  Why?  Because many want the results that those resolutions can produce without the giving up of stuff that causes those resolutions to crumble.

The same is true with our walk with God.  God wants to take us into His loving hands and fit us for His kingdom.  What that means is that God has a great victory for us but for us to reap the rewards of it we have to let Him have His way in our lives.

I was watching one of the food channels on TV one day.  They went behind the scenes to see how various foods and snacks are made.  One of the snacks they reviewed was taffy.  Have you ever seen taffy being made?  After mixing the sugar and ingredients together there is this big blob of sweet goodness left.  This blob is then fed into this funky looking machine with weird arms that turn this way and that.  Then, those arms pull and pull and pull some more until the blob has thinned out to be used as something else.  From this state it can take on various sizes, shapes and molds, but not without being pulled first.  The taffy blob had to yield to those mechanical arms so that the arms could design it to be what it needed to be.

That’s what God wants us to do.  As uncomfortable as it may seem some of the time, He wants us to yield to the work He is trying to do in our lives.  He’s pulling and stretching, but also shaping us into the man and woman of God that He wants us to be.  Why would He do that? So, we would be of good use to His kingdom and His kingdom purposes here on earth.  Instead of mechanical arms He uses His loving hands to make us over.

Unlike those resolutions we make that work on the outside of man – to make it look better and more organized – we need to resolve to let God have His way and fit us on the inside.  To allow Him improve the structure of the inner man.  When God created you and me, He knew already where He wanted us to be in life.  He knows our beginning from the end.  He has a plan to get us from point A to point B.  Our job is to let Him perfect the process in us.  Resolve to yield and let Him shape you from the inside out.

I do not speak against getting fit and in shape.  Oh, boy, is it necessary “but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come,” (1 Tim. 4:8).  When we let God make us over, we are not only in shape physically for this world, but also spiritually for “that which is to come.”  I, for one, don’t mind being blessed on both sides.  What about you?  Do you mind being blessed on both sides?  Then, as the clay in the potter’s hands let God shape you today.