God Uses the Mucky Waters

            Well, I know you may be tired of my “outdoor” stories, but I’ve got another one, so hopefully it’ll encourage you and not bore you to tears! I was outside this morning enjoying our flowers and doing a little weeding. We have some guests coming in for dinner this weekend and if you are anything like us, sometimes we put things off until we know someone who has never been to our house is coming over. Well, I was making a mental list in my mind of what really needs to be done before they visit, when I walked by our small fountain on our deck. What I saw was pretty disgusting at first. It was green and slimy. Yuck! Well, I’ll add that one to my husband’s list, I thought. I’m not sticking my hand in that green mess! But, as I looked a little more closely, I saw something that really surprised and astonished me! Down in that green slime, were dozens of tiny little tadpoles! Wow! I called my husband outside and we both gazed in amazement at the sight in our tiny pond. My husband asked me what I wanted to do about it and I told him that we could not possibly kill all of those little fellows and the cleaning would have to wait. We both decided that our guests would just have to look at our messy little fountain, and we came to the conclusion that it would at least make for good conversation if we run out of things to talk about. (Not that this is ever a danger with me J) Who would have ever thought that our disgusting, green fountain would produce life!

            Well, of course that reminds me of my relationship with God. Isn’t that what God does with us? He takes us, sinful, yucky messes and offers to clean us up and make us new creatures! The Bible says that none of us are righteous, that we are all sinners, that we all deserve death. And, it took His Son’s death on the Cross to make us clean, to wipe our sins away. He offers each of us a clean slate, a new life, a second chance, forgiveness of our sins. He can bring life from death and light from darkness! Just like those little tadpoles were born into that green slimy mess, and will eventually turn into some kind of interesting little frog, Jesus takes us and breathes new life into us, making us new creations in Him! He uses the mucky waters of life to teach us and grow us into His likeness. You can read about this in several places in the Bible, Romans 3, Romans 6, and 2 Corinthians 5 among many other places in God’s Word. He turns us into His “work of art”, and has specific work prepared for us to do! We are His masterpieces! (Ephesians 2:10)

            I tried to take a picture today of those little swimmers in our fountain, but they are so tiny that it didn’t turn out so well with all the green slime. I’m going to post it anyway so that you can get a mental picture of just how awful the water is in our fountain. Well, my life was just a gross before I became a follower of Christ. Don’t get me wrong, I still need a LOT of work, but I belong to Him and one day I will be complete in Him. He is transforming me day by day and from glory to glory! I hope and pray that if you do not know Jesus as Lord and Savior that you will find a Bible and read about Him and His amazing grace, love and mercy. He wants a relationship with you. After all, He knows you best! (Warts and all…no pun intended! hehe)

God bless and thanks for reading! J

Bugs in the Pool

I’ve always been a huge fan of the underdog. I always root for the least likely winner. I love to see God use ordinary folks for extraordinary things! If I see someone or something hurting, I want to reach out and help, even if it is a bug in the pool. Let me explain the bug thing. We have a very old above ground pool in our back yard. When the water reaches a certain temperature, I really enjoy exercising in it and just relaxing. It is so peaceful floating and listening to the birds sing around me. (although, every now and then I see a vulture flying high above me, checking to see if I’m road kill or something and I immediately flail my arms so that it’ll know that I’m alive and kicking!) Sometimes I feel like I’ve escaped to an exotic peaceful place when I’m quietly floating around. Being in our pool has multiple benefits. I have bad joints and the movement in the warm water helps to ease the pain, and it gets my very out of shape body moving. That’s a good thing.

I’ve noticed the past few times I’ve been in the pool that all kinds of little bugs find their way into the water, especially one particular kind of tiny bee. They fly in and find themselves struggling to get out, but have little hope of doing that on their own. I don’t know what possesses me to do this, but I find it necessary to try to rescue them. I scoop them up in a handful of water and take them safely to the side rails of the pool. They regain the senses, right their little bodies and fly off to freedom. I do not even like bugs! I’m pretty surprised that I’m willing to pick them up and help them out. I risk the chance of getting stung or bit, but I do it anyway. That’s kind of the way it is with people. Sometimes when we reach out to help, and we get “stung”, but it’s always worth it!

Like I said, I like to help people, especially those who are hurting. It is my desire to help them see the hope of Jesus Christ. The hope that proves that even when they feel like the deep waters of life are overtaking them, there is Someone who cares and who will reach down, scoop them up and set their feet back on solid ground. He loves to rescue us, just like I like to rescue the little drowning bugs. He sees us floundering down here, trying to do things on our own, living in ways that are not according to His Word, and running from the very Hands that can save us. He can take us from waterlogged to safe shores! His Word can guide us from darkness to light. If we ask Him to, He will enter our hearts and stick with us closer than any brother or friend ever will. He will never leave those who belong to Him. He will show us how to go from the depths of despair to the freedom of life in Him.

Now please don’t hear me saying that life will be all white sandy beaches and smooth sailing if we become His children. That is not true. He tells us in His Word that we will have trials in this life. We should expect them. It is part of living in a fallen world, but, we will not fight the waves of life alone, ever. His Spirit is here to guide us and His Word is available to teach us His perfect ways.

I will continue to rescue the little bugs in our pool. (unless of course they are spiders…they are on their own!) Every time I rescue a poor little drowning bug, I will remember how my Savior has rescued me and how He walks with me through life every single moment of every day. This is so reassuring. The waves of life get pretty tall sometimes. Things are constantly changing and not all change is pleasant or easy. It is easy to be overtaken by the storms of life, but if we are His children, the waves will never overtake us! What an incredible promise!

This week in Vacation Bible School at our church, we learned that “Everything is possible with God!” and that “No matter what happens, we can trust God!” We learned several songs this week about how we can trust Him, and that we can take Him at His Word. We also learned that “Nothing can keep us from His love”. These were all great songs, and great lessons. I watched almost two hundred K-5 kids, a group of pre-schoolers and one hundred fifty-plus adults learn about trusting God. Some of them asked Jesus into their hearts for the first time! It was amazing to witness what we might call “the faith of a child.” I'm so thankful to have been a part of this! We could all take a good lesson from these precious little ones. We really can trust Him! It doesn’t matter how young or old we are. It’s never too late to start! God bless! Thanks for reading!

The Weeds or the Flowers

            Have you ever noticed how we tend to look at the weeds in our own yards and flowers in someone else’s yard? Maybe you do not do this, but I do. Everyone else’s yard always looks nicer than my own. You know, “the grass is always greener…” And, we’ve had others do that in our own yard too. My husband always gets a little nervous when I step outside to take a walk around our yard because he knows me, and he knows I will treasure the beauty of the yard, but that I will also see everything that needs to be done. And that usually means a lot of work for us. (especially him)

            He told me the other day that one of our friends mentioned that she had walked through our yard recently and thought that it was lovely. Maybe she noticed the plethora of weeds, but she did not mention them. The truth is, I enjoy our yard very much. I really enjoy the beautiful flowers, watching the butterflies gently land on the butterfly bushes, the sound of an approaching humming bird and the bright yellow finches on our feeders. And I love the freshly grown tomatoes that await us in our veggie garden. It all sounds wonderful doesn’t it? Almost like the Garden of Eden! Well, not so much. You see, also in our yard is a constant battle with deer that eat everything we plant, moles and voles that will suck a plant into the ground right before our eyes (yes I’ve witnessed that before!), squirrels that chew right through our plastic bird feeders to get to the tasty food inside, and then there is the ongoing war with weeds. Good grief. It doesn’t sound much like the Garden of Eden anymore does it?

            Well, I guess you are wondering where this is going…me too! It is easy to look into other people’s gardens or into their lives and see only what we want to see, the beauty (and then on the flip side of that, sometimes all we focus on is their greatest weakness, instead of their greatest strength).  At first glance we may only see the beautiful things in someone’s life, but if we look more closely there is a LOT more going on. We just tend to look on the outside, but God looks at the heart. It is easy to look at someone on the outside and think we have them all figured out. Well, probably not.

            I was having a conversation with some folks last night and we were talking about how we hoped that we were more comfortable in our Christian skin now than we were ten years ago, more “mature”. All three of us agreed quickly that we think we are, but am I? Do I really feel that I am different in a positive way than I was ten years ago? I had to immediately change my answer to, “well, some days I am and some days I’m not.” Some days, I do spend enough time in God’s Word, some days I do learn from His Word and obediently live it out. Some days I do love people well, offering the same grace and mercy that the Lord offers me constantly. But truthfully, some days, there are more weeds in my life than flowers. Some days I do not love very well. Some days I do not live out God’s Word as I should. Some days, I’m not very gracious or forgiving at all. On those days, I may be tempted to look at someone else’s “garden” and see lots of beautiful “flowers” that I’d like to see in my own “garden”.  

            The good news is that God’s mercy is new every morning. He is always tending to the garden in our hearts, if we’ll let Him. In Lamentations 3:22-23, it says, “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Weeds in a garden can be bad news. It does not take very long for them to consume an entire flower bed. The same thing is true in our hearts. The weeds of life can consume our hearts very quickly. And if that happens, we lose our focus. The weeds of unforgiveness or pride can quickly distract us. We can become self-focused and the root of bitterness can quickly overtake us. That does not make for a beautiful “garden” in our hearts. These things can change us and cause us to lose our joy. They can cause us to stop doing what is most important, loving and serving God and others. These things can wreak havoc in our lives and Satan would like nothing more than to clutter our minds with weeds. But, again, we have the good news that God’s mercy is new every morning. He keeps offering us new chances to get it right, to clear our life gardens of the weeds that can destroy us. How do we get those weeds out of our hearts? Well, I would say by pulling them and replacing them with the beauty of God’s Word. If we fill our minds with His Word, we will be transformed by it. We are not to conform to the ways of this world, (Romans 12:2) but we are to be transformed instead by the Word of God, allowing it to renew our minds, to clean them up and refresh them, just like pulling weeds from a flower garden allows the plants in it to grow and thrive, in a more healthy way. What an incredible picture! I don’t know about you, but I’ve got lots more weeds that need pulling from my heart and mind! I want God to get to work on my heart right away, but it will not be easy, pulling weeds is hard work!

            Although I am no Bible scholar, just an ordinary girl who loves Jesus and who loves God’s Word, I do believe that God puts these things on my heart to learn from personally and to share with others. Please do not take my word as the Gospel. Please take some time to investigate God’s Word for yourself. Please look deeply into it and see what God might have for you there. He may be trying to do a little weeding in your life too. J  Thanks for reading and God bless you!

Biblical Community - I Need You and You Need Me!

Hello all!

It’s been a crazy few months with our son’s wedding and with life in general, but I’ve decided to take a few minutes to sit quietly in my favorite room and reflect on some things that God has put on my heart recently. I woke up this morning with so many folks on my heart who are hurting for various reasons, and with others who God just put on my heart to pray for. When He nudges me like that, I feel compelled to pray. I also woke up with some other thoughts on my mind this morning, some of which I’d like to share.

Often, my blogs come into being from something I have read in my private worship and devotion time, or a friend may say something profound or they may come from watching a sunset or sitting quietly watching a gold finch or a humming bird feast on one of the many feeders in our yard. The words just start swelling in my heart and I cannot wait to get the time to put them down in print.

This writing is sort of a combination of all of these kinds of moments, however, it mainly began forming in my heart when a dear friend reminded me of something that I think about often. In fact, it is a vital part of who I am. We were talking and like so many other times through the years, she shared her heart thoughts with me. She is a dear friend and any time that I get the chance to talk to her, which is not nearly enough, she strongly encourages me. I love her dearly and I thank God for her and husband, and other special friends who love me enough to always be honest.

During our phone conversation, we started talking about biblical community and what that means. She and her husband would probably not want me to say this about them (they are very humble folks), but for MANY years, they have been and continue to be such examples of biblical community to me and to my family. She shared a very good “definition” of biblical community. I think it came from one of her favorite authors, and also from their own personal ministry experiences. She said this, (or something very close to this…I even grabbed a notepad and wrote it down!) “Biblical community is this, knowing and being known, loving and being loved, serving and being served, celebrating and being celebrated and grieving together in times of grief.” I think I’ve got that right, believe me, she’ll let me know if I don’t…and that is one of the many things that I absolutely love about her! J

Her words have continued to ring loudly in my heart and mind in these last few days. I find them to be very true. Just about everyone I know wants to be known, loved, valued and celebrated. We all need someone to laugh with us when we have something to laugh about, people who really care about us, especially when we are hurting or grieving. I believe that God created us with hearts that desperately need Him and need others. We are not islands, we need each other! I KNOW that is so true for me.

Not only do I need others, but I strongly desire to be this kind of. I want to be the kind of friend and believer who is available for others when they are celebrating or when they are hurting or all in between. I want to love people well and know people well, not just know about them, but KNOW them and LOVE them. I want to be the kind of example that my dear friends have been to me for so many years. We always want our home to have a revolving door with a huge welcome sign, a hug, a warm meal and listening hearts for all who enter. I want to love like Jesus loves. After all, is our best example. He loved all kinds of folks. He met them right where they were and loved them into His Father’s kingdom. He loved tax collectors (some not so nice people in His day), he loved women who had been with many men, people who cursed Him, people with diseases, and He loved the very people who crucified Him. (us!) Not only did He die for us, but He keeps on loving us. If we are His children, nothing and no one can separate us from His love. (Romans 8:35; 39) This is an incredible truth!

Well, I’m not sure how to wrap this one up except to say that I really need people in my life who love me enough to be honest, who love me enough to laugh with me, to cry with me, to dream with me and to walk with me along life’s path until we all reach eternity. I read something this week that makes me realize just how much I need others, but more so, how I need Christ. It said something like this…thoughts of my own weakness lead me to the Cross. Wow, when I think about just how weak I am, and about how little I can actually accomplish on my own, that pushes me to my knees and to the foot of the Cross. It also causes me to reach out to a few dear friends to ask for prayer and guidance, for encouragement and maybe even just a hug. I thank God that I have a wonderful family and a pretty incredible church family, some of whom I believe deeply care about me. I want to give as much of that back as often as I can. I want to LOVE others. Do you have a place and some people like that? Do you have a relationship with the One who loves you like no one else ever will, Jesus Christ? Do you have a church home that is your extended family? If not, I strongly urge you to find someone who is willing to talk to you about Jesus, or a church home where you can know and be known, love and be loved, serve and be served, be celebrated and celebrate, and find a few folks to walk through life with you. If I can be that person for you, please let me know. I am willing! I may not get it right all of the time, but I’m sure going to keep trying! God bless you all and thank you for reading!! J

Hebrews 10:24-25 “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another —and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”