I am excited to announce that I have started a new site and I hope you check it out. I will no longer be using this one. Please go to www.heartfeltramblings.com Have a blessed day
Perfect love casts out all fears
Recently we took our youngest off to college and fear began to creep in. This is something I wrote for the "Whatever girl" page and I hope you give it a read. Just click on the link below. Have a blessed day!!!
THEN WHAT?
Many people argue that Jesus is not the son of God. They call him a visionary, a great man, a prophet, a moral teacher. Some argue that not only is Jesus not the son of God but, that there is NO God period. Now I am not going to argue with people about the bible and about what is true or not true. I am just writing this to ask a question. What if you were wrong?
In other words, what if the "story" of Christ on the cross were true but you choose not to believe it?
What if the crown of thorns was real and not just folklore? What if the nail pierced hands that Thomas saw were the real deal? What if you could really have eternal life in heaven but you choose not to except it? What happens if you choose not to believe any of that is true?
What if you lived your life believing how ever you choose to and the time came for you to leave this life as you know it? What happens if you are wrong and everything about Christ was true?
Then what?
In other words, what if the "story" of Christ on the cross were true but you choose not to believe it?
What if the crown of thorns was real and not just folklore? What if the nail pierced hands that Thomas saw were the real deal? What if you could really have eternal life in heaven but you choose not to except it? What happens if you choose not to believe any of that is true?
What if you lived your life believing how ever you choose to and the time came for you to leave this life as you know it? What happens if you are wrong and everything about Christ was true?
Then what?
EXPECT IT!!!
Last Sunday we had a sermon that has really stuck with
me. Not that the others I have heard
have not stuck with me. This one however really seemed to strike a cord in
me. It was such a short, simple and to
the point teaching that packed a mighty punch. I found myself getting out of my
seat at the end of church and opening the doors of at the back of the sanctuary
so that the worship music could spill out into the neighborhood that surrounds
our church.
We need to have faith to expect everything is possible. To expect that God can do anything! Do you
have that kind of expectation? If you are not sure what I mean by this go to
book of Matthew and start reading chapters 8 and 9. The amazing things done by Christ in those
two chapters show us that anything is possible and that we should expect to see
God’s mighty hand moving today even when we are not face to face with Jesus in
the physical sense that the disciples were.
The sermon was given using 3 examples from Matthew to make
his point and he made it in such a clear statement that I have to say it was
one of the best sermons I have ever heard:
*Matthew 9:20-22 Just than a women who had been subject to
bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his
cloak. She said to herself, “if I only touch his cloak, I will be healed”
Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter, he said your faith has healed
you. And the woman was healed from that
moment. She knew and expected that all she had to do was grab his garment. Her expectation turned into reality.
*Matthew 8:1-3 when he came down from the mountainside,
large crowds followed him. A man with
leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord if you are willing can you
make me clean” Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing he
said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was
cured of his leprosy.
He expected and knew
his leprosy would be gone.
*Matthew 9:27-29 As Jesus went on from there, two blind men
followed him, calling out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” When he had gone
indoors, the blind men came to him and he asked them, “ Do you believe that I
am able to do this?” “Yes Lord,” they replied. Than he touched their eyes and
said, “According to your faith will it be done to you” They expected/believed Jesus could do this and he did.
Do you see the common thread here? THEY ALL EXPECTED!! Great things are happening all over the world
today. Healings that could only come
from God!!! It makes me think… have we in the United States forgotten to
“EXPECT” that God can do anything? Have
we put him in a box up on the shelf? Do
we take him down and open the box only when we need Him or it is convenient for
us? It is time that we in America start
to EXPECT THAT GOD CAN DO ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING. Let’s get God out of the box we have put him
in and let’s start expecting!!! I
know I “EXPECTED” His holy spirit would flood the neighborhood when I got out
of my seat and opened the doors of the church last Sunday!
Life is to short not to laugh at yourself
When God was handing out brains sometimes I think I must
have heard trains and I missed mine. I
have had some very stupid moments in my life and my Grandpa used to say you
can’t be smart and beautiful on the same day.
The other day I had a moment when I must have been the most beautiful
woman in the world.
I am sharing this because I have learned to laugh at myself
and I when we take ourselves to seriously we miss out on so much joy.
Let me set the scene…our last child has just left for
college and now we have an open spot in the garage to park my husband’s
mid-life crisis. He asks me if I can
come and help him move stuff in the shed so he can pull his car to the
garage. Being the good wife I am I headed
straight out to help. He pulls the car
over to the garage and just before he pulls in he unrolls the window and says, “Can
you tell me if my BRAKE LIGHTS are working”?
Again, being the wonderful wife I am I say yes to this next task. Now here is where I make a total fool out of
myself. He asked me to look at his brake
lights and I say, “okay step on the left one”.
My husband says I am asking you to tell me if the brakes work, I think
he thought I was looking at the blinkers because I said something about the left
one. He steps on the brakes and says, “are
they working? I say, “the left one is,
now step on the right one”.
My husband at this point gets out of the car and stares at
me like I have not a brain in my head. I
then tell him that not all the lights on the right side are on could he please
step on the right brake again so I can see.
Very calmly my husband says, “Kim there is not a left or a right
brake. There is just one brake pedal”.
Keeping a straight face he says to me you get in the car and
push on the brake and let me look. I
have completely lost it at this point. I
am laughing hysterically when I realize what I have said and climb into the
car. It is a manual transmission and I
cannot believe I am going to admit this because I already am looking like I
have no brain. I never told my husband this but now the truth to just how
confused I was is going to come out. There were 3 pedals and I was laughing so
hard I was not sure which one was the brake, so I stepped on all 3! For those 2
or 3 seconds I really had no clue which one was the brake.
Someone should have signed me up for a photo shoot because I must have been drop dead beautiful if what my grandfather used to say was
true. I have been laughing at myself
ever since then and thought I should give you a laugh too. Life is short, God is sweet, laughter is so
healthy and this midlife domestic goddess is happy to laugh at herself. I hope you find humor in your life. I hope you laugh until you cry. God gave us laughter for a purpose so don’t
ever forget to let your laughter flow.
For those of you who know me personally…. my brain is firing
on all cylinders for now so you are safe to be on the streets when I am
driving.
In the light of the Son/Sun
Jet lag seems to be running the show for me. It was just before 4 when I woke up AGAIN. I tossed and turned trying to go back to
sleep but I soon realized it was a mute point and I pulled myself out of
bed. The coffee pot was my first stop. As the coffee pot heated up I stood looking
out my window and it hit me how I was so blessed to stand in total quite and
watch the sun rise. All of a sudden my
view of the day ahead of me was taking on a new light.
A sunrise, what a blessing!
I asked God to join me, to speak to my heart and I told him to have his
way in me. In a whisper I began to sing
the words “Every breath that I take, every moment I am awake, Lord have your
way in me” To the melody of that song I whispered my own words. They were from my heart for God.
As I stood with my coffee in hand and watched the sun come
up I began to see something. I knew if I
was patient and waited, I would learn something special from God. As the sun began to rise I noticed the
darkness of my yard take on a new light. God had my undivided attention and he was
going to show me something. The sun
seemed to be coming up so fast and I could not get over the details in the
trees that I miss during the day. It was
beautiful and I wanted a picture so I left my post at the window only to make
my way down the dark hall to my room in hopes of finding my phone with out
tripping over something and waking my husband up. With my phone in my hand and my heart open to
whatever God had for me I returned to my spot at the window.
I am not sure I can begin to paint a picture of what a saw
because my words seem to be a feeble attempt to describe the beauty of a
sunrise. The sun was off in the
distance so at first the horizon began to unfold in front of me and what looked
like a black blob of nothing began to become different trees all different
heights and shapes. I could make out
what in the distance much better than what was in my yard in front of me
because the light of the sun had not reached my yard fully. As time went by I took another picture from
the same spot and I began to see that I could make out my driveway and other
things in my yard better. God was
bringing into the light the world in front of me. It was while trying to take the pictures I
began to see the something special in what was unfolding in front of me.
With each moment the beauty of my yard was becoming more and
more clear to me as the “SUN” shone it’s light upon it. I noticed the beautiful pink and yellow
flowers in my yard that a few minuets before where covered in the
darkness. They had been right in front
of my face but I could not see them.
With out realizing it at first I was singing, “Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved
a wretch like me, I once was lost but now am found was BLIND BUT NOW I SEE” I
was drawn to the colors of my flowers that had been right there in front of me
and yet I could not see their beauty in the darkness. I
raised my camera to take a picture of them and bingo the lesson from God hit me
right in the eyes! When I looked at the
flowers with just my eyes I could see them clearly under the light of the
sun. What I was really seeing outside was lost on my camera in the darkness due to the cameras limited perception .
I tried to use my flash but that only reflected off the window and into
my eyes. I wanted so badly to get a
picture but the stupid camera on my phone only hid them in the darkness. I have to admit I must have looked a little
strange as I stood in my window raising my camera up and than dropping it back
down over and over to compare how different my surroundings looked depending on
if I used my eyes and the light of the sun or the camera.
Are you picking up what I am putting down? God was using that moment alone with me to
teach me something. Today's lesson for me
was…. are you looking at your life/your surroundings through the eyes of the
“SON” (in this case the “SUN”) or are you only seeing your life/ your
surroundings through the eyes of the “WORLD” (in this case the “camera”)
When I looked at my yard without my camera, with nothing but
the sun’s light on it, I could see so much beauty, so much detail and I was
blessed. When I raised my camera to look
at my yard it was like putting on blinders.
It became a skewed picture of what was really in front of me. The beauty was hidden because it was darker
looking through my camera.
“Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like
me. I once was lost but now I am found
was BLIND BUT NOW I SEE”. I stood
there in my window and let the words of that song hit me in a way they had
never spoken to me before. How easy it is for us to become blind to all
God has for us. We can so easily get
caught up in what the world sees as good that we miss the whole picture. We have to be careful that we do not fall
into what the world sees as acceptable because when we do we are living in
darkness. The picture we will get will
be much like the skewed picture of the sunrise over my yard I got today. They beauty of my yard could not truly be
seen with my camera. To truly be seen it
had to be looked at with nothing but the “SUN” shining on it.
Here are the flowers that I could see as clear as the nose
on my face when I looked out my window but in the picture I took of my yard they
are hidden in the darkness. I had to go
outside and get up close to them to get them to show.
I still found beauty in the sunrise even when I got it on my
camera but I am thankful for the lesson God gave me today. Just like the song says… “I once was blind
but now I see”. When we truly see the
light we are no longer blind. The world
longs to keep us in darkness but God wants us to see all there is and in his
SON we can do just that. Have a blessed day J
Jesus is the Zamboni of my life
Jesus is the Zamboni of my life. Bet you think I have lost it now? A Zamboni is an ice refresher for lack of a
better way to describe it. Jesus is my
life refresher.
“Mr. Zamboni man” drives over the ice laying down a fresh
coat of water that covers all the marks the ice has taken from the skates. Jesus by laying down his life for me (and
you) covers all the marks of our sin with living water and the blood he freely
shed so we could start fresh like the ice after a Zamboni treatment.
If you have ever got to put the first marks in the ice the
Zamboni is done you know it how cool it is to feel that perfect ice and know
you can choose where to put the marks by the course you choose to take. We are the same. Once we have been made new by Christ, we have
fresh slate to start with and we can choose what kind of marks we want to leave
behind us.
Choose your course wisely. Be sure you are putting the
“right” marks on your newly refreshed life in Christ. When the day comes for you to leave the “ice
rink of life” will you be able to look back and be proud of what you see?
The problem is not the kids these days, IT IS THE ADULTS!!
Sunday we were headed home form a softball tournament and a
young man in his 20’s gave my husband the finger and called me a name. We have no idea what we did to deserve this
and it would be so easy to say, “These kids today have no respect”. However, before I could judge him I
remembered what had happened earlier that day.
While at the tournament a man
with a daughter the same age as my daughter stood behind outfield fence and
yelled at my daughter as a ball was hit to her.
He said, "You have no skill, you won't catch that" along with
a few other things. Really, with
examples like that on how to treat others it is obvious to me why kids act the
way they do.
The next game the coach on the other team corrected his
player but rather than build her up he was rude and told her to learn to play
the game in the rudest voice. My heart
ached for that girl who was giving her best in the heat and who was on game 3
for the day. The same coach would
later inform another player the next time the situation that just took place on
the field happens again to lay the other player out! That “other player” happened to be my
daughter. The umpire walked very calmly
over to the coach and told him there was not need to talk like that.
In a matter of 2 hours my daughter was told she had no
skill, and heard another coach tell his player to lay her out. (Both were
adults, both fathers, both were setting examples to those around them) We get angry how the youth of today act and I
can't help but think it is a reflection of how we as adults act. We need to look in the mirror at ourselves
before we judge the younger generation.
We need to stop this "do as I say not as do mentality". We are the roots of the problem. Our children learn by example. The examples I saw in a matter of hours break
my heart as a mom. Not sure why that
young man was so mad at us that it would lead to his middle finger flying at my
husband and the name he called me but, I would bet he was only doing what was
shown to him as an example of how to treat others.
My daughter caught that ball and made the out!! She turned
to the man and pointed at her glove to show him she made the catch despite him
yelling at her that she had no skill.
She than told my husband and I she was sorry if she was disrespectful to
him to do that. My daughter stood up for
herself against the outright disrespect shown to her and was worried she may
have disrespectful to the man who showed her no respect. I rest my case the problem is not the youth
of today. The problem is the adults of
today that have created this mess and we blame it on our kids.
We need to remember who is watching us and we need to choose
our words wisely. No more do as I say
and not as I do. It needs to be do as I
say and do as I do because I am teaching you respect for yourself and others.
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