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Showing posts from December, 2012

New Year ~ New Thing!

"Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland." Isaiah 43:18-19 I love reality TV shows that are about people cleaning out their clutter. Two favorites were always, "Clean House" and "Clean Sweep". These were shows where a team of experts come into the homes of people with hoarding issues and help them clean and organize their space.  Often their attachment to clutter has become so extreme it is holding them back in life ~ in jobs, relationships, health, overall quality of life. They cannot move forward emotionally because they cannot see to take the next step. Their clutter is holding them captive. One thing the experts always make the participants do on every episode is to sort their stuff.  KEEP - SELL - DONATE - TRASH... In Isaiah, the Jews were being held captive in Babylon. The people wanted th

Love's Pure Light

"I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." John 8:12 I have a confession.  I have been more than a little 'bah humbug' this year. I don't really know why. We are settled in our new house this year. Grandkids have come and gone and are still coming and going. It's been a beautiful, tropical Florida Christmas season. We did a great program at our church. And, yet, I'm just not feelin' it...  Until tonight. Tonight was our annual Christmas Eve candlelight service at church. It is undeniably one of my favorite services every year and is always packed. Tonight was no different.  During the weeks leading up to the holiday, our pastor has been preaching a series of sermons called "The Light of Christmas" from the first chapter of John. Our Christmas musical was also themed around the light. And tonight, I saw the light. Because I was singing with our Praise

Jars of Clay

"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us."  2 Corinthians 4:7 Jars of clay... Why not etched crystal? Or for that matter, what about the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? This little light of mine could shine through crystal - and just think what  beautiful pattern it would make glowing through the etched sides. Gold is sparkly and attractive. Everybody just loves gold. So why does it have to be a jar of clay? In 2 Kings 4, the widow who only had a bit of oil came to Elisha for help. He told her to go and collect jars. Can you imagine what it must have taken for her to go to her neighbors and ask for their jars? They had to know she was in trouble financially. No doubt there was more than one conversation at dinner tables that night about the widow woman coming to ask for jars. I mean, she had nothing to put in them. Whatever, did she want with jars? But she was obedient and she humbled herse

Leaving Your Nets

Matthew 4:20 "AT ONCE they left their nets and followed Him (Jesus)."  Matthew 4:20 records the response of Peter and Andrew to the call of Jesus to be his disciples. They literally walked off the job and into ministry. We have the advantage of viewing this story with hindsight and the scripture, but Peter and Andrew were in the moment... Jesus was a hometown boy, a carpenter. He hadn't really started his ministry, yet. Surely he had been preaching in the area and the disciples knew what kind of man he was. But still... Fishing was a major industry around the Sea of Galilee and most fisherman belonged to family owned business. Can you imagine old Zebedee's face when somebody walked in his "office" and told him Peter and Andrew had taken off with the new preacher? How do you go home and tell your wife that you walked off the job for a ministry with no pay? How do you feed your kids? Their security was gone. Their income was gone. Possibly a few r

Keeping Christmas

I have no idea who wrote this. My mother was thumbing through my grandmother's old Bible and found it typed (with an OLD style typewriter) on a little sheet of paper, tucked in between the pages... There is a better thing than the observance of Christmas Day, and that is keeping Christmas. Are you willing to forget what you have done for other people, and to remember what other people have done for you? To ignore what the world owes you, and to think what you owe the world? To own that the only good reason for your existence is not what you are going to get out of life, but what you are going to give to life? Are you willing to stoop down and consider the needs and desires of little children? To remember the weakness and loneliness of people who are growing old? To stop asking how much your friends like you, and ask yourself whether you love them enough? To try to understand what those who live in the same house with you really want, without waiting for them to

He Who Began a Good Work...

"And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue His work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ returns." Philippians 1:6 (NLT) Just a short food for thought note tonight... I am reading the passages from 2 Kings on the life of Elisha as part of my new Bible study. From this, I am learning how to have more faith and to believe God for bigger things. Elisha did some wild things! As I was sitting, meditating and praying over what I had read, the scripture above came to me. It occurred to me that God began a good work in Elisha's life many years before Jesus was even born, but it is still not completed. It won't be completed until Jesus returns. Elisha is still living out the purpose for his life through the pages of scripture and the lives of believers that still hear his teaching. Isn't that amazing? What is more amazing to me is that this is what God has planned for each of us . Long after we are gone, Go