Limited Range

Plants require specific soil elements lighting, sun, warmth, and water to grow best.  Some are specific to well drained, moist, sandy soil; while others require full sun.  Some plants want dark, shady areas and some want acidic soil or specific nutrients to grow best. When plants are deprived of what they “need” or prefer, they tend to shrivel up and die.

I considered how we, as a people, are a little like these plants.  We find ourselves in “our little corner of the world” and rarely wander out of our boundaries.  We require a specific kind of soil to grow in, or at least in which to remain “alive”.  We allow our boundaries and growth requirements to limit us to our abilities and talents God has given us.  We choose to not place our “roots” in uncomfortable surroundings for fear of failure, ridicule, or timidity!  We don’t trust God to help us move forward.

God is not limited to what we can see.  His space and time dimension flows well beyond ours of length, width, height or even time.  He is not limited to physical laws or physical senses.  He lives in eternity, in that which at this time, we cannot see.

During a recent conversation with a friend of mine, the idea of how we let “religion-osity” rule our world was discussed.  We get so caught up in the rules and traditions we’ve learned over the centuries since Christ walked the earth, we lose what the Bible says.  His Word clearly gives the directions for our lives, but we try to conform and fit in, if not with the “world’ certainly with those closest to us, even if it’s a skewed understanding of Doctrine.  By following our own creeds, standards, traditions and principles we are not gaining right understanding and acceptance of God’s laws. 

The Pharisees were rebuked by Jesus for exactly this.  They worked to be noticed by man, were hypocritical, didn’t speak the truth and turned people from the right way and even rejected the prophets.  Isn’t this what we are doing today?  Our world is filled with those who would twist, contort, water down, add to, delete or otherwise change what God’s Word says!

Using God’s Word as a guideline, we have to choose to follow or not follow someone we believe to be godly leaders if they are not giving us truth from God’s Word.  If we don’t know His Word because we aren’t studying, it is easy to become so comfortable where we are, that we don’t even recognize we aren’t hearing truth.  It’s like we have blinders on because we choose to not question ---and we are instructed to search God’s Word as truth, when someone speaks.  We aren’t just to accept it as “golden” without “proving it through His Word.”  If it’s not truth, we must not believe (or follow) the person who says he is a man of God.

He told us in the end days, many will be deceived.  So, I challenge you to know God’s Word; study it, be in fellowship with the Creator, so you are prepared should someone ask questions about the Word or challenge your faith in some way.  It is what God not only wants, but expects us, to do. Along with this we must remember, God’s truth is not limited and neither are we, when we are in Him! 

Thanksgiving Blessings

         

         The news across the world is not only dappled in unpleasantness, it wreaks of it.  There are horror stories of shootings, weather related strife and political unrest. Yet here we are getting ready to celebrate another Thanksgiving Holiday.  So, we cook our meals, prepare lots of yummy desserts and invite friends and family to share a meal while we blot out all that is going on around us.

            So, this post is going to be a reminder—a tribute, if you will, that regardless of the many things “wrong” with our world, we can indeed look on the bright side and focus on what is “right” in our lives! Will it be balanced?  Only each reader can determine that, but I’d like to believe, regardless of the depth of despair we encounter, when we have God in our lives, we can (and must) be thankful!

            That said, first and foremost, I am thankful for God, the Giver of all things who created the universe and cares about each creation, large and small across the globe, and especially His creation of humanity.  He also offers mercy, grace and forgiveness, and as a human who is forever making mistakes, I have another reason to be thankful!

            My family is also at the top of my list.  When I consider the wealth of love I have through my husband, children and grandchildren, how can I not feel blessed?  We have a home, adequate food, clean water to drink, clothes to wear and shoes for our feet.  We have an education, enabling us to follow our dreams to become whatever it is we desire. We have the means of transportation to take us wherever we choose to travel.  And we have the comfort of pets who want nothing more than to be fed and loved.

            Along with my God and family I have friends that surround my life all across America--and even across the ocean.  I have several church families since we have the opportunity to travel.  Each of these special people embrace us even as weeks and sometimes months pass between visits.  This is the kind of friendship that lasts a lifetime, and for that I am extremely grateful!

            As Americans, we live in a country where freedoms are still protected, while every day we see history changing as technology continues to radicalize the way we think and see our ever changing world.  Additionally, I am grateful to the men and women across the centuries who have served in the military to protect those freedoms, even as there is the constant threat from those who want to see our country crushed.

            Additionally I am thankful for you!  I am grateful that each of you are willing to take a few moments of your very busy days, and read the thoughts I put on paper (or computer!).  And

I am delighted when someone takes the time to share their thoughts on a given blog. 

            So, I wonder if you would share one or more things for which you are grateful.  God is so good and even when we have bad days, weeks, months or even years, it’s so good to know He is in control.  For that I am also grateful!  So share your heart……and thank you!  Thank you for being YOU!

           

Giving Up Our "Isaac's"

            I was talking with a friend this week about how life seems to want to wrangle us to the ground, leaving us breathless with frustration and wringing our hands, while trying to figure out what in the world to do!

            One of my favorite movies, “Facing The Giants,” has one scene where the wife is faced with the frustration of being unable to get pregnant.  Her husband asks her if God doesn’t give them children, would she love Him [God] anyway?  She didn’t immediately answer, because the void left her broken.  

           Later after another visit with the doctor that said she was not pregnant, she looked up toward the heavens and said, “I will love you, anyway!  I will love you!”  That scene brings me to tears every time I see it.  She, gave up her “Isaac.”  She gave to God that which she clung to, because of the pain of not having children seemed too great to bear. 

            Another friend recently shared how she had to give up something she loved.  She said it wasn’t something she really wanted to do, but God had his own plans, and her life had turned in such an expected way, the only way to deal, was to give up this particular “love!”  Following much prayer and discussion with her husband, she made the hard choice.  She will tell you in a heartbeat, God blessed her and her husband’s decision.  God opened doors in areas she didn’t even realize needed opening.   

            In my own life, I have been faced with similar situations.  There are changes which rattle my core, and I have prayed for direction.  There was a time this week, when I heard that “voice within me” ask, “If……(this) …..doesn’t take place, will you love ME anyway?” 

            It made me remember the scene in the movie, “Facing the Giants.”  I had to look hard at myself and weigh my choices and recognize who is in control.   I looked to the Lord and said, “Yes, I will love you anyway! I will!”  In the movie, the couple had children, even though the doctor said they wouldn’t.  How will my situation turn out?  I haven’t a clue.  But I have to trust that if God chooses to change MY plans, then HE has something better!

            We’ve become a world where those things we believe we need (and particularly that which we can buy), is a done deal!  With credit easily available, to almost anyone ---  even though there may be a horrific interest fee to pay ---  we can buy those items we feel necessary, even if they aren’t a “necessity” at all.

            For those items we cannot purchase, even with cold hard cash, it’s a little more complicated, but people will still go to great lengths to attain their ideals from their “bucket list” or human desires, even if it costs them dearly, because of bad choices.

Once Adam and Eve were ejected from the Garden of Eden, we’ve been a people who were promised a life of trial and tribulation.  It’s in this format we are taught to trust in a God who knows all things.  Life’s not easy.  It’s not supposed to be.  Sometimes, when we are faced with not getting what we want, it may not be that God is saying, “No.”  Instead it may be “It’s not the right time,” or “I’ve got something better in mind.” 

Giving up your “Isaac” may be the hardest --- and best --- thing you could ever do.  It may be just what you need to strengthen your faith and build your trust.