The Best Product Available

            

           One of my daughters several years ago began a small sales business. To get started, she sent many information packets about her adventure, via the internet, to friends and family.  Her goal was to get as much information out, to as many potential customers imaginable, in the quickest way possible.

            There are lots of venues and social media sites to use and many are free!  There is Face Book, LinkedIn, Twitter, outside billboards, newspapers, flyers in the mail, email and the best of all, is word of mouth.  If you have the funds to spend, there are always television commercials!

            Of course, once you become known, the internet will also accommodate, if your product becomes popular.  That is when a business begins making lists formed by “those in the know in the advertising world, (without an additional fee)!” 

            When doing a search on popular products in a particular geographic area, there are often many! There are so many, they are broken down into large categories.  From computers and gaming to digital health and fitness, home and autos to networking and security with many in between! In some areas you will find Farm Goat Milk Soap to Pointer Brand Jeans; or hot chili peppers to Chesapeake Bay crab cakes; or Sturgis Jerky to Black Hills Gold jewelry, along with many others!  These products, because they are known for their tried and true quality, receive rave reviews, which further encourages other people to try them!

            Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we, as Christians, were as exuberant about “selling” Jesus as my daughter is about selling her products or any of the well-known products we use everyday?  Imagine if each of us would contact everyone we know about the “greatest product available,” Eternal Life through Christ.   If we did, then Jesus would reach as many people as all sold products combined!  

            He would be easy to promote:  Loving, faithful, understanding, forgiving, Father, Savior, Comforter, Counselor, Creator of the world, the only One who can give peace, Healer, and on and on!  What a product!  How can anyone go wrong?

            Yet, many of us don’t live our lives that way.  We quickly share and “sell” a variety of other thingsevery day that brings us joy, but neglect to mention the person who supersedes all else: Christ, the Messiah.

            Christmas Eve is rapidly approaching (well….  It is still 91 away!) and it along with Easter is when most Believers will visit a sanctuary of their choice, because it’s the “thing to do!”  How sad a situation!  If we claim we know God, why do we usually find something else to do instead of worshipping with other Believers? 

            If we like a certain restaurant, we eat there often. If we have a favorite sports team, we will stay on top of the stats, players, when a game is televised or better yet, get excited on a date we can attend.

            The best aspect of our life, as a “product,” but more, as a real, living person who wants a relationship with us, is more often remembered when it’s “convenient,” tragic, or on a special holiday.

            I encourage you to remember the source of all good things, strength, faithfulness, forgiveness, eternal life and day to day blessing!  He is better and more special than any product you can imagine on earth! 

Inferior Words

        

          When my husband and I traveled across country, people could often tell where we were from because of our accent and the words or expressions we used.  Once while camping in South Dakota and using the shower facilities in a campground with my young daughters, someone called out to me and said, “You have to be from the Eastern Shore!” 

         “We are,” I responded.  “But how did you know that?”

         “By the way you talk,” she said.  

         Needless to say, I was totally shocked.  I had no idea I had even the remotest accent or used any particular dialect relative to the place we lived.  But given I never saw or met the woman who spoke to me, I apparently did!

         In the northern states people put items in a sack, while on the east coast items are put in a bag.  We have sodas, other people have pop.  Many grandparents are mom mom and pop pop, while in other areas they are Grandma and Grandpa or Nana and Poppa.  It has to do with geography.  None is wrong, just different.

         In the Appalachian Mountains there is a distinct dialect which sets it apart and has been suggested as being inferior, due to seclusion from other areas, apathy, and absence of education.  The culture has been subjected to accusations of unsophistication.   This is far from the truth.   People are just different, and there is nothing wrong with that.   In fact, the dialect and accent is an appealing element of the area. There have been times when I’ve looked at a total stranger with whom I’m having a conversation and say, “I could listen to you talk all day long!” 

         As Christians, when we share the Gospel, we are accused of a variety of things. It might be stupidity, lunacy, ignorance or even fanaticism.  When attacked in such a way, we might choose to cower and stop sharing, even when we would rather not.  We aren’t trying to be fearful or even disobedient, we just want the mocking and insults to stop.

         Recently a young woman I don’t know “followed” me on Twitter.  I responded with a thank you and hoped she’d find my posts a blessing.  I was taken aback when her response was negative and downright insulting, especially when she “followed” me, not the other way around.  I wanted to respond, and ask why she followed me, but the internet (or my computer) –or God, intervened and I could not make connection.  Instead I prayed for her!

         We are told not to be shy about sharing, but to rely on the Holy Spirit. It’s difficult to react positively when unkind things are being said.  Often our instinct is to respond with equally negative reactions.  When we do this we are not allowing the Holy Spirit to work through us.  Instead we are inviting “things of this world” to rule our thoughts and behaviors.

         So I challenge you to offer understanding when people are different from what seems “normal” in your world.  Different isn’t necessarily wrong.  Additionally, consider the person throwing vile and offensive comments as an opportunity to demonstrate God in your life.  You might be the only glimpse of God they’ve ever seen.

Limited Range

Temperatures, wind, rain, and pollination are huge factors in how—or if-- a plant can grow.  Depending on the plant, a cooler climate and thereby shorter growing season can have a huge impact on whether or not a given plant will survive.  Some plants require well drained, yet moist, sandy, loamy or clay soil.  Others want warm and wet conditions, and grow better in or at the edge of small ponds. Still others thrive in climates with cooler summers and even colder winters!

I considered how we, as a people, are a little like 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 to remain “alive” in.  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. ²

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.  God’s truth is not limited and neither are we, when we are in Him!  

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.

Buried Secrets

         

         I was reading about someone who disappeared forty-five years ago in the Great Smokey Mountains.  It seems reasonable over the course of time something would have been discovered to give some hint of what happened to him.  Apparently this hasn’t yet happened.  In fact, not only has this man never been found, but small planes have taken years to find and pilots…… sometimes never.  This isn’t unique to the Great Smokies, but all over the world.  People disappear.  Why? Where?  Who or what is responsible?

         It amazes me to know a mountain range can create one to three inches of earth every year.  According to experts even though the Appalachian Trail is one of the most traveled trails in existence, with the heat, humidity, leaf decomposition, underbrush and debris, if something, or someone goes missing, finding them can be challenging at best.  There is an eerie feeling the mountains bury secrets deep beneath the layers, daring anyone to find the hidden “treasure.” 

          Just like the mountain hides what is underneath the earth, we create layers in our lives in an effort to hide what we don’t want others to see.  We mask all those personality traits and behaviors we are sure others would not approve. We replace negativity with smiles and congeniality; abrasiveness with gentleness; meanness with kindness and insincerity with an air of authenticity for everyone who doesn’t know us well, to see.

         Sometimes we are successful to outsiders.  There are those close to us, however, who often see the real person we are on those days we allow the world and the evil prince of this world to bring us down.  We become crabby, insecure, short-tempered and sullen with those around us and forget to mask those things we don’t want the outside world to see. 

         Unlike the hundreds of searchers who look for days, weeks and years for the mysteries beneath the earth of missing hikers, planes or lost children, we aren’t ever hidden from a God who knows where we are no matter what our station in life, decisions we’ve made and circumstances we’ve allowed to control us. There is no where to hide!

         Our God loves us right where we are!  It doesn’t matter what debris, seeming decomposition or underbrush that hides us from the world, we can be found.  Scars from the thorns of life, mud that cakes us, or trails that led us down the wrong path are no match for God.  We can be found!

         I challenge you to become the person God wants you to be.  He created each of us to be special and beautiful with a purpose grander than our minds can comprehend.  He looks past all the dirt, grime, scratches, breaks and debris that is our lives and sees us as His pure child.  

         Buried secrets need not be a part of our lives.  The guarded layers we have allowed to cover us can be removed from our world and replaced with a beauty and peace beyond our understanding.  We are designed to be a light unto the world! I encourage you to let your light shine!