God's Awesome Power

  Some years back, my daughter was in a horrific car accident.  The damage to the car was incredible!  As the rescue team cut her out, I was terrified we may lose her.  Her major injury, however, was a broken arm.  I’ve repeatedly said God was in that car with her!  I express this view to Christians and non-Christians alike when I share the story.

The awesomeness of God is breathtaking.  The Centurion and guards near Jesus that Resurrection Day those 2,000 years ago were terrified and knew they’d witnessed the Messiah’s death.  But God’s power superseded all that was natural.  He caused the earth to shake violently, the curtain in the temple to tear in two, from top to bottom, and caused rocks to split.  The power of God is no small thing!

God’s power isn’t just demonstrated in big, supernatural events.  Sometimes they are as delicate as the opening of a flower or soft as butterfly wings or the tiny, beautiful snowflakes that fall from the sky.  He causes the sun to shine, food to grow from a tiny seed, and a gentle rain to fall.  Yet, this same God can heal cancer within a body, cause the blind to see, deaf to hear and the lame to walk.  

His awesome power has the ability to change the course of plans we humans make, for his purpose.  A friend of mine, as a young person, wanted to be a missionary.  While in college, in preparation for this field, she developed an autoimmune disorder that nearly took her life, but ultimately stole most of her sight.  She found herself asking “why?”  Her dream was noble, but God had other plans.  Her loss of sight put her in the center of the “disability people group” and she now ministers (and is missionary) to these special people.  God used her for his purpose and she is overwhelmed with gratitude, even though she can barely see. 

I’m a writer.  I wanted to write articles and stories and yes, even books.  His power, however, was displayed when he took my writing abilities and turned it toward the special needs people group.  

It is here where “Paxton the Prairie Dog and friends” share and learn about special needs and disabilities for children.  This was not my plan, yet God has used me to make a difference in a genre I knew little or nothing about, but where I have the opportunity, to make a positive difference.

If we open our eyes and recognize Jesus, who indeed died on a cruel cross, we too, can witness this awesome power.  God's power was inside the car with my daughter that day, years ago.  God kept that car from collapsing in on her when she hydroplaned, lost control and flipped over while trying miss a deer.  He was with my friend when she became horrifically ill with an autoimmune disease and he’s with me daily as I write.  He's with you when you are following his call for your life, if you can't see the 'why'.

God’s power is awesome.  He demonstrated this when his Son died on Calvary and resurrected Him three days later.  He continues to demonstrate it in our lives every single day. All we need do is open our hearts with faith, open our eyes to see and open our ears to hear and then...be receptive to his voice.

Photo Credit:  God's Awesome Power

Giants In My Life

     It was out there, all around us, and everyone was borderline paranoid.  Some were even panicked.  Yet, there wasn't a lot we could do, except wait and use good common sense.  It’s amazing how a flu type virus could up-end an entire country, yet, here we were.  It had a huge grip on all our lives and it was squeezing.  Even now, these several years later, it still has 'it's a giant' stigma and people are still afraid of the word COVID.

The encounters of giants are all through the Bible.  In Deuteronomy, it was the descendants of Anak, and then there was Goliath, and Daniel in the Lion’s den, and even the enemies of Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego when they refused to kneel before the statue. 

Giants don’t have to be big and mighty, like Goliath, lions or even the ‘giant’ descendants of Anak.  Our world today is, it seems, dealing with another 'new' virus--and the 'old' one isn't gone!  The germ is so small, the naked eye can’t even see it, yet the fierceness has many people in knots, filled with despair and dread.  It disrupts lives across the globe.  My daughter shared the story of a small boy who needed kidney surgery, yet because of this flu-like disease, the doctors waited because surgery would put the child at even greater risk of infection with all the germs from the virus.

Giants come in so many forms, although they seem to network together, making them seem even larger, and thus more threatening. There are monsters like loneliness, worry, doubt, failure, jealousy, anger and resentment, along with fear and discouragement just to name a few.  They link arms and twist themselves through our being so tight, we can barely breathe!

Our first instincts are to run and hide because the champions just seem too large for us to master.  The second might be to surrender, because no matter what precautions we take, the giant, whatever form it takes, is going to overtake us and win anyway.  These kinds of thoughts are exactly what Satan wants.  

The evil one loves it when we cave!  He jumps with glee when he sees our knees begin to weaken and knuckle under the stress.  Stress.  It keeps dumping on us until we don’t know which way to turn.  In some ways, the stress in our lives can be a giant unto itself!  And managing that beast can be difficult!  I know.  I’ve been there before and find myself tackling it even as I write this!

But God has other plans for our lives.  When we run and hide, or even cave to those ogres, we are saying God is not a conqueror!  We are not believing he has the capability of performing a miracle or working things out for our good, because the odds don’t look in our favor.  We are projecting a huge lack of faith!

Regardless of the giants we face, as Believers, we serve a Mighty God who will fight for us!  We need to stand tall and face the giant just as David did, even if all we have are small stones!  The challenge before us is great, but with God’s strength, we can be conquerors!  He is greater than any, and all, foes before us.  Let’s join together, and trust the God ‘who can!’

Photo Credit: Giants

Changing The Pattern

        I am a quilter, when time allows. It's a great time to sit quietly and commune with God, enjoy beautiful music, or even the outdoors.  I enjoy leafing through all my quilt books looking for the quilt pattern I’d like to make next.  I’m often amazed at how different a quilt can look when you change one shape in the block, change colors or when you rearrange the pieces.  With each change, you have the potential to make a whole new quilt!  The possibilities seem endless!

This change can even be seen on area barns in a variety of states across the nation.  In East Tennessee the Appalachian Quilt Trail, displays barns that have a beautiful quilt patch, painted in vibrant colors, adorning some part of the exterior barns along this trail.  These pieces, when displayed separately, offer a distinct pattern visible because of the colors.  If all the patches were put together, it would be an amazing array of colors, in a range of shapes that would be an incredibly beautiful quilt!

This same principle can be applied to our lives.  Each behavior we display can be a color.  When the colors complement each other, because God is in our lives, guiding and “growing” us into the person we are meant to be, others can easily see the defining lines.  

In a practical application, this switching of colors or shapes in our lives can be visible when we exchange a bad habit for a good one.  In this change, we could visualize we’ve changed a “shape.”  When we change a from sinful lifestyle to a Christian lifestyle, we can imagine it being a changed a “color.”   When we fellowship with Christians, instead of those who would lead us down a sinful road, we have “rearranged the pieces” in the block.  The total of all these changes has the potential to create a “new person” in Christ, when our heart is in tune with God.

We are told not to conform to the patterns of the world but to be transformed.  (See Romans 12:1-20  This transformation may take time.  With the “renewing of our minds” through reading God’s word, communing with The Father, listening to Gospel music, and studying with other Believers the transformation comes in each of us, just as the quilt changes when we change colors and rearrange pieces of the block.  Our potential for possibilities, like the quilt, becomes endless!  

I encourage you to look at your life as if it were a beautiful quilt block.  Do you like what you see? Imagine what your “colors” and “shapes” are telling those around you.  Are there colors or even “shades” that need changing?   Are people seeing a God filled human, who chooses to make right and good decisions, rather than conforming to all the varying “obsessions” the world provides or are there patterns that may need changing?       

God Provides

  I was chatting recently with a relative who shared the story about “God working in mysterious ways.”  Her daughter, a single mother, who lives in another state, recently found she had to move.  After finally finding a place to rent that accommodated herself and her children, she set to the task of job hunting.  She has an intense love for horses and discovered that her new landlord has stables with horses. The young mother found immediate work in a field she not only loved, but excelled!

In another situation, a young man I know, moved from a state in the west to one in the south and had not a clue where he would find work.  But again, God provided just what he needed even though it wasn’t what he expected.  

In still another case, a Pastor’s wife shared she sold a product, largely to her “sisters” in Christ at her church. (She didn’t sell anything during church; it was an outside the worship environment.)   She made the decision, however, to help those in her congregation with her products.  She said very often she never made a profit from her sales, but was able to just break even, which she considered a blessing both for her and for those she cared about.  She believes God provided for her needs to be able to share this blessing!

I’ve heard others share stories about having no funds to put groceries on the table, yet when it was time to shop, money would show up in the mailbox.  Or the different times cancer was sure to be an evil culprit in someone’s life, yet when they went to the doctor they were surprised and delighted to hear, “No cancer!”  

God does promise to take care of us.  It’s when we are at our lowest we recognize this most often.  When we are beyond our wits at how to cope, God comes through if we ask him.   Often when things are going smoothly, we forget to give God the credit, even though it’s due him.  We tend to take the credit ourselves, forgetting that “all things come from God,” including the ability to handle situations, talents, and even our very breath.

Our verse from Psalm 84:11  For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless; is a balm to our spirit because it puts things in perspective.  God is our Creator, our Father, the one who loves us more than we can imagine.  He wants only good for us and promises such, if only we love him in return.  

Our love is demonstrated when we praise and thank him, share the gospel with others, commune with him in prayer, listen to his words of wisdom, and spending time with other believers and with Him through his word.  I encourage you to reflect on your relationship with The Lord.  Can you recall times he’s provided when you least expected?  Is your heart thankful in both difficult times, as well as, in the good ones?

Photo Credit: Worship

Memories And Mercy

  Having a houseful of children, it was inevitable there would be disagreements!  It was interesting how during a disagreement the kids would take sides, and it wasn’t always with the same sibling!  As the “disagreement” went on, the voices became louder and stronger, as each tried to make their demands outweigh the other.  

        As a parent, there were times when I needed to step in and settle it, but each child had their own recollection of what the issue was, who said what, and how it should be dealt with.

What’s interesting is how years later, the memories of unique incidents are remembered differently.  When the incident involved more than one of the children, their memories are similar, but each has his own version.  They can laugh about it now and tease each other regardless of “their version” because the edge is removed and anger eliminated over time.  It no longer matters what really happened.  

Adults are no different.  It happens in marriages and it happens in church business meetings. What starts as a simple disagreement turns into a huge misunderstanding. The end result is the same---anger, and a recollection of information that is skewed depending on perspective.  Ultimately, like my children, emotions need to be reined in and after a cooling period, apologies are in order.  In discussions, at a later time, forgiveness is given and those who were angered, even if the disagreement remains, can again be friends.  

Historians even have a way of disagreeing over major events.  Causes of the Great Depression, why the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the Holocaust, even the reasons for the American Civil War and others have created much controversy between the different factors.  Memories and interpretations of the different events over time, change as new evidence occurs or opinions are made, given certain information.

It also seems memories have a way of skewing information. Perhaps this is by God’s design.  He created us, and much like the way women forget the pain of childbirth, we are designed to have the edge of hostility removed from past personal situations, which allows us to rebuild relationships.

There are those in our lives who hurt us and then apologize; only to do the same thing again…..and again.  As Believers, we are told to forgive and do our best to reconcile.  But once a relationship is broken, it takes time to rebuild the trust that once was, because our memories remind us of the pain. Restoration is a process that doesn’t always happen immediately, and sometimes, depending on circumstances, restoration may not be possible, even if all hostility is removed and the edge of anger and hurt, replaced with forgiveness.

 

Each of us have experiences that have left us with reason to apologize.  This is apparent even in our spiritual lives because we are careful not to disclose everything about ourselves, even to our closest friend.  But God knows …..even our motives.  Only when we repent of our sins can we receive forgiveness.  

Because of God’s mercy and grace, he offers pardon and exoneration from our sins.  If you are struggling with forgiveness, I encourage you to give your anger and any unpleasant memories to God, and allow him to help you restore any broken relationships.

Photo Credit: Disagreements

Always Wanting More

  Contentment in whatever circumstance we are in, is sometimes hard to swallow!  I remember a time when two families lived in our house.  With the added family, there was quite an accumulation of “things.”  Some of these “things” overlapped and seemed more like clutter.  Cleaning was an issue because there just wasn’t enough space to put it all!  We had discussed building onto our home but finances and circumstances kept getting in the way.

Most days this situation didn’t concern me.  Then, there were days when I was terribly impatient to have the whole house finished!  This took time, planning and money.  When I got seriously impatient I had to have a talk with myself and try to remember the verse in God’s Word, which pushes against this idea:  I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.  Philippians 4:11.  

Aren’t we all like this?  When we become irritated with our circumstances, we lose focus of what is important.  I remember a trip out to San Francisco back in the late 1980’s.  We stayed at a nice hotel with very accommodating rooms.  After breakfast one morning, we ventured outside for a walk with the children.  

Across the street, a man with long, extremely matted hair; with frayed, dirty clothes, sat on the sidewalk with his back against a store wall.  A customer from the McDonald’s a few stores down came strolling by and tossed what was left of his sandwich and drink he’d purchased in the trash can not far from the apparently, homeless man.  The man stood up, walked over to the trash can, retrieved the discarded food and commenced eating.  Can we say I was appalled?  I was; beyond words, yet I couldn’t help feel sorry for him.  Clearly he was hungry.  Would I have done the same thing in similar circumstances?

When I considered my circumstances of our “live in family,” I am reminded of this mortifying picture witnessed in San Francisco, which happens all over our country---and even the world!  I lived in a comfortable, warm home.  I was surrounded with people I love and the little inconveniences that came with it were not so bad when you considered the flip side of these issues.  

My home could have been drafty, run down and unlivable.  Those around me could have been of ill repute and unloving, non-working and just not nice people!  I needed to remind myself that people really lived in the earlier circumstance I described—and in even worse situations.  It’s when I considered this that I became ashamed of my impatience.  Life is good.  I had every reason, and then some, to be content!

As we begin this New Year, look around your home.  Are there times when you wish for something better?  There is no shame in that, but being mindful of those who are in worse circumstances than our own tend to bring our own conditions into proper perspective.  God is good, and we don’t need high priced, luxurious material goods to be happy.  Contentment can be found in our faith, family, friends, and even our work, when it provides the means to meet the needs of our families.

Blessings to you in this new year: 2025!

Photo: Wanting More 

A Deep Desire To Learn

  I am a study bug!  I drive my children nuts with my intense desire and preference to keep reading “informational” books over what I usually label “junk” books that have little or no unique plots and offer nothing more than “entertainment.”  My goal is to learn something new every single day!  Do I always succeed?  Probably not, but I can try!

My efforts pale next to Helen Keller who learned to read despite blindness or Abraham Lincoln who walked twenty miles to get a book or even Booker T Washington who considered education so important he made a decision to learn despite all obstacles including being born a slave in poverty.  

Thomas Jefferson believed education was paramount to freedom, self-reliance, and responsibility.  He believed education established knowledge and the qualities required to shape a self-governing citizen.  He was a leader in education reform, establishing free schools for children to learn reading, writing and arithmetic, so they would grow into an adult having skills to make educated decisions.

As a “mature student” in college I was amazed at the apathy many of my younger peers displayed.  Many weren’t at all interested in being in class, chose not to do any homework or participate in any of the discussions.  It made me angry when students were less than honest when a professor would ask why they missed class or were unable to turn in an assignment.  And, I found myself really upset when working as a group, 75% of the group did only as much as necessary to get by, contributing little or no preparation for an oral presentation.  I admit, I couldn’t understand it!  

These young people were energized about everything except college!  Why were they there? I understand, in our late teens it’s likely we don’t have a clue what we plan to do with the rest of our lives.  We’ve just finished high school and the last thing we really want is to sit in a classroom again.  Yet, what an opportunity!

As the mature student, I did have an advantage.  I knew what I wanted and it was important to me to get the education to enable me to do it.  I was willing to read the assignments and do the work, study for tests and be a willing participant in class, first because I honestly enjoyed it, and I wanted to learn, despite the obstacles I faced!

We all face some kind of road block.  The path is rarely easy.  Helen Keller faced blindness; Booker T. Washington, slavery; Thomas Jefferson, politics; I faced dealing with marriage, a home, children and grand children and the fact it had been 30 years since I’d been in a classroom.  I had a lot to catch up on!  But I was driven!  I wanted so much to fill my mind with information that would enable me to become self-confident, independent, competent to make my own decisions, qualify me to join the work place should I desire to do so, and empower me with the tools I needed to fulfill my dreams.

But with all that said, there is another area where I desire to excel in the realm of ‘learning.’  As a Believer the very idea that the Bible is ‘God’s love letters to me’ is intriguing.  Why wouldn’t I want t read about the God who delights in me, loves me and wants only the best for my life?  God’s Word is a Living Book.  It’s more important than any other book on the planet!  It’s my life guide, truth, life changing, inspiring, encouraging, convicting, teaching, coaching, and ultimately the perfect book for any question in life I could imagine!

So I encourage you to pick up reading material that will strengthen the mind and character.  And more than that, I suggest picking up God’s Word, the Bible, which can change your life forever. Place aside, even if only for a few moments that “junk” book, video game, or TV show you wanted to see.  Find something inspirational that will “feed” your mind and more importantly, your soul! 

Photo Credit: Bible Study