Grace...

We have all sinned…every one of us. Not one of us is righteous. “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” Romans 3:23

The sin in my past is so atrocious that I can’t bear to even speak it, the things I did, how I profaned God’s Holy name. I pursued my life of sin with passion; I made it my goal to discover all this world had to offer. But I was miserable, the more I sought to fill that void the worse it became. My sins were not just in my heart and mind, my sin was so public that everyone knew. Everyone. I made no effort to conceal them.

Others have sin that they feel is concealed. No one knows they beat their wives, maybe not with fists, perhaps it’s only with words. That’s not as bad as so and so…No one sees the secret sinful longing of their heart; No one knows about their sin because you can’t see them festering on the inside, they appear holy on the outside, many times even the one doing the sinning can’t see them. Secret sins. Things we do that don’t seem like sin to us but the Word says, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” In Proverbs 14:12. We have all been influenced by a society that makes the perverse acceptable and calls the righteous truths of God a lie and bigotry. God forbid we are narrow minded.

So who’s sin is greater? What are the consequences of that sin?

I was told that the consequences of my sin will be worse because my sin was public, that God will never be able to use me as He would have if not for my sin. I bought that lie; hook, line and sinker until the truth of the Word began to show me that the God I serve is bigger than their God; because my God, the God of the Bible, the Creator of the universe, and the Savior of the world is bigger than my sin. His blood is able to cover my sin.

The Bible says “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Isaiah 1:18 Thank you Jesus!

When I give thanks to His Name for what He has done for me it is a sacrifice of praise…“By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his Name.” Heb 13:15

“Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” I Pet 2:5

God’s grace abounds in my life enabling me to walk the narrow road with Jesus. The Holy Spirit keeps me from many snares and stumbles. I’ve been forgiven much and I love Jesus all the more because of it.

Has this touched a nerve with you? Do you feel like you are unable to be forgiven because what you’ve done is so bad? Do you live like you have no sin but the Holy Spirit is pointing some out to you now? There is a remedy. Give your life to Jesus, surrender to Him and let Him wash you clean. If you have already been saved but have sin in your life you can’t overcome this is the remedy. Confess. Repent.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” I John 1:9

Change...

What to do when there is nothing to do? I was told this morning that I will be on sedentary duties until November 1, and that is TWO WEEKS AWAY! But here is the real kicker…there isn’t enough administrative duties to justify me staying in my department so they are looking for a place to put me.

I have no idea what the next two weeks of my life will be like. This is a strange thing, not knowing. Generally speaking I get up, drop off the monkey, come to work, do my job, pick up the monkey, and go home. This has been working very well for quite a while now and even though it’s only a two week period of not knowing, I am not extremely comfortable with it.

Change…Webster’s defines change as to make or become different. Change implies making either an essential difference often amounting to a loss of original identity or a substitution of one thing for another.

I have always thought that I was pretty good with change, because change can be a very good thing, it can also be scary.  The Bible is full of change. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new.” I Corinthians 5:17.  With this I reassure myself that change is good…

So now I come to this new time in my life where my work will be changed from what I’m used to doing to something that is unknown. Even as I write this the powers that be are trying to decide what to do with this newly incapacitated person who must be accommodated. What can I do that is sedentary? Who knows…not me, that’s for sure! But thankfully I will be able to go back to doing my old thing in two weeks.

Dress Up!

This week has been a difficult one for me; I’ve been crazy busy at work, home hasn’t been much different. So I’ve turned my attention to something that will cheer me up…a costume for my monkey to wear in her school parade!

I was brainstorming with my most faithful costume idea sidekick…Mom! On my way to practice for a song to sing on Sunday I called her and asked what would be a doable costume that would be as good as last year. Monkey was a Doctor last year! I know, simple, but I was pressed for time (as always)…

How about a beekeeper? Sweet! Literally and figuratively considering that my husband has hives and I’m getting one in the spring, this is something that ties into our family very well.  Her honey bucket can be used to collect her goodies, she can wear my veil with a white shirt and voila! A costume!

I’ve been busy as a bee, hehehe, coming up with ideas to go with it and I’ve decided this weekend will be a trip to the craft store to buy pom pom’s to make our little honey bees. This is going to be so much fun! I’m excited to have a project to do with Monkey and I thought of it early enough that we can actually do it, not just say well there’s always next year! But even better than that, we can make it together…priceless.

Enjoy your weekend!

Pretend

How do you respond to those who are different than you? Let’s play a game…it’s called pretend, Monkey and I do it all the time, it’s easy.

Pretend…a twenty-something woman in a pair of tight Daisy Duke shorts and a skimpy halter top walked into your church, pranced all the way to the third row from the front and shimmied in past 4 or 5 men, plops down in the middle of the pew and proceeds to kick back and apparently take a nap. What do you do with that? Or worse, she stands and dances when the congregation sings? Oh my!

Pretend…a teenager with pink hair, nose piercings, and heavy eyeliner walks into your Sunday school room and starts asking some hard questions, like, if God is real then why did my uncle have sex with me when I was 11?

Pretend…a young man dressed in black with tattoos and long stringy hair comes in and sits on the back row, arms crossed, and sullen look on face…pretend. Can you see these people?

You see where I’m going with this. We often only see the outside and if it doesn’t match what we believe “Christians” should look like then we dismiss them or try and change the external so they will fit into our mold. Or worse, we ask them to leave...

If Church isn’t a social club, but a place to equip the saints for ministry, why do we turn away these individuals who are there by no accident? Why aren’t we going out to places where the “outcasts” are and bring them the hope of the Savior? Or are we too comfortable in our pews?

I for one am very thankful for a loving group of Christians who didn’t try and change the first subject of my game, the Daisy Duke woman…

Here is the response she received…after the service a lovely older man named Duke met her, looked straight in her eyes and never let them wander below her nose, shook her hand and said he was happy she was there. Was there anything that they could do for her? Please come back, she was welcomed there. That began a time of melting, love melted through a wall of ice that surrounded a cold, dead heart. Jesus breathed life into that heart and now it beats for Him. The Christians never said one word about her attire, never criticized her questions, never looked down on her, and as a result she felt the love that only Jesus can give. Love to the unlovely, unconditional and pure.

I am the Daisy Duke woman…

We all have pasts…

We all have sinned…

Thank you Jesus for the blood that washes me clean.

If you don’t know Jesus as your personal Savior all you have to do is repent from your sins, believe in Him and accept the gift of salvation. Wearing nice clothes won’t save you, neither will driving a nice car or living in the better section of town, going to church won’t save you either, only accepting Jesus Christ can save us. Surrender to Him today.

“Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6

“Father, I know that I have broken Your laws and my sins have separated me from You. I am truly sorry, and now I want to turn away from my past sinful life toward You. Please forgive me, and help me avoid sinning again. I believe that Your Son, Jesus Christ died for my sins, was resurrected from the dead, is alive, and hears my prayer. Jesus, please come into my heart and forgive my sins, cover me with Your blood and wash me clean,  become the Lord of my life, to rule and reign in my heart from this day forward. Please send your Holy Spirit to help me obey You, and to do Your will for the rest of my life. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.”

Lab…

I don’t know a single person who enjoys being sick that said I’m no exception and I had a really yucky weekend.  But I’m thankful to be back to work today and that Monkey has a loving person who helps with her while I was down for the count.

While I was flat on my back for more than 3 days, I’ll spare you the gory details, I remembered something that God had laid on my heart last week the morning of the dreaded yuck…when you are feeling down the best thing to do is pray for others. I actually posted something about it on my FB status asking for people to give me prayer requests. God knew that stomach bug was about to hit and I would REALLY need to pray for others!

I didn’t make the correlation at first, as I lay in bed thinking perhaps I would die, (I always think I’m gonna die when my head hurts that bad, I can envision the stroke about to happen) but as I prayed for Him to spare me; people’s faces came to mind.

First was the young lady who I have been praying for to give her life to Jesus, she is a sweet young lady and I have a love for her that goes beyond anything I’ve felt for a total stranger, much less a total stranger with a language barrier... She does my nails and when I see her I feel the love of Jesus inside me so strongly it makes me weep at times. Jesus died for her and He loves her…so do I.

Then I began to recall the others who had replied to my status and inboxed me. As I began to lift them up I realized, my pain wasn’t as bad, I was still unable to stand without falling over but it was bearable. I still couldn’t think of food without being ill but it was manageable.

There was also a song in my head playing on a loop. “There’s a fourth man standing there in the fire, there’s a fourth man standing there in the fire, you’re not alone, you’re not alone…” Indeed, I was not alone. Jesus was with me all the time and so was my loving husband who held my head and told me I wasn’t going to die. He even went out and got me soup, medicine and bread for toast…That’s Love!

I just love it when God shows us something in His Word and then He gives us the opportunity to walk it out personally to see how faithful He is. I have a dear friend who said one day, like when a professor teaches a class and then we have lab. It’s like lab. We learn the material and then we have lab. “Lab” ~ the opportunities to live out what He taught us and grow closer to Jesus in the meantime.