Scrolling Tickers

   Today, August 25 sometime late in the evening, as the news reports, Senator Ted Kennedy Died. I say that not to begin making a political statement of any kind, though regardless of which side of the aisle (if either) you are sitting on, we would all offer up our prayers for the man’s family.

    As the news first breaks, the ticker begins rolling across the TV screen giving us point by point highlights of Senator Kennedys life from it’s beginning to it’s end. Though I don’t plan to chronicle his life, and certainly wouldn’t be the person to do that anyway, it is interesting to note, or rather should I say sad to note that at the end of a man’s life, sins for the last four or five decades will be instantly highlighted, rehashed and rejudged in the media as if they had happened only yesterday.

    Yes, I’m going somewhere with this! You see as that ticker, and I call it that because I have no idea what the proper term for it is, as the ticker runs across the screen I find myself immensely thankful that when I leave this world there will be no telling ticker to remind those I leave behind of all my sins. There will be no news ticker on the TV or anywhere else. Not in the media because of course, I am not now and doubt seriously that I will ever be of any worldly importance that anyone would care about my sins or accomplishments. Though I might be an avid fan of Fox News, I doubt even they will pick up that little tidbit of news, the day I die!

    I am speaking here of a more important ticker. The one that would be scrolling across the screen in front of my Lord and Saviour. There will be no highlighted chronicals of my sinful life, no panel of judges rehashing bad choices and deciding if I should now be forgiven, or if this should follow me even to the grave. For you see that ticker will announce me only as a Child of God, glorified and made righteous by the blood of Jesus, and a heir of my Father.

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God”. 2Corinthians 5:21

    My sins were paid for and my salvation bought by Jesus. He paid for them with his own perfect life, a life he gave for me, a sinner, unworthy and to say that I am grateful for his unimaginable grace and mercy is an understatement.

    As the ticker still runs, hours later repeating over and over both the sins and accomplisments of one man to the world, I am grateful that Jesus doesn’t have a media room with miles of film clips that can be called up in a nanosecond to remind the world of every wrong I have ever done.

  “as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” – Psalms 103:12

   God’s forgiveness is complete, and removed from the records!

Thank you Jesus! I love you so much!

What are you waiting on?

“Well, I’m just waiting for a miracle.”   How often have you heard someone say that?  How often have you said it?         “If God wanted me to have a new car he would give it to me?.  If  it’s in his will for me to have a good job he will make it happen”   If your staring out the window waiting for that shiny new sports car to come tearing up the drive, then you should probably get comfortable, since my best guess is your going to be sitting there looking down the road for a long time.  By the same token if you are waiting everyday for someone to knock on the door and say “Your Hired!” your probably going to get mighty hungry before it happens.

You can insert here whatever problem or situation you may be waiting on God to take care of.   You might say, well of course you can’t just pray up a new car or a new job, but I’m very sick, or I’m  believing in God to pay off my bills, or fix my children..  Any one of a thousand scenarios would fit, and there are just as many excuses as to why we are still sitting by the window waiting for God to take care of  it.

So if God wants us to be financially secure, healthy with happy secure and healthy children, why is it that we are still waiting?  What exactly are we waiting on?

John tells of a man in Jerusalem that was very sick and had been so for thirty eight years.   There was a pool there known as Bethesda. It was known  that in certain seasons an angel of the Lord would come and stir up the waters.  The first person to step in would be completely cured of whatever ailment he was afflicted with.   The Lord set up the situation in which the problem of those around could be “fixed”  but there was a stipulation that must be met in order to get the miracle the man had spent thirty eight years waiting for.   He had to be the first in the pool.

Now Jesus came by the pool one day and saw the man, knowing he had been there for a long time, just waiting on the side of the pool,  (looking out the window and waiting)    He asked the man,  “Do you even wish to be well?”    I kinda wonder if  Jesus might have been shaking his head thinking, well, I’ve stirred up the waters over and over for you and I’ve sent my angels to show the way to your healing, but your still sitting here, just waiting.  What are you waiting for?

The man answered Jesus by saying that he did indeed want to be healed, but each time opportunity knocked, or the waters were stirred, someone would step over him and get there first.  Someone else always got ahead of him.  He complained that there was just never anyone there to put him in the pool.

Are we complaining that if someone else would just do something or the other,  the problems in our lives would be fixed?  Are we saying, well God of course I want to be financially secure, and I’m waiting on that great opportunity, but you see when it happens,  I just never have anyone that will help me take advantage of it first.  Then someone else steps over me and I just keep on waiting.

Now the man waiting at the pool surely believed there was miraculous healing powers in the water when the angel stirred it up.  After all he had been waiting and watching for thirty eight years and had no doubt seen the many  other sick stepping over him and being healed.  He believed God could fix his problem but he was never quite ready to  step into the water when God prepared it for him.  Now maybe he couldn’t walk, maybe he was so very sick  and weak that he  was just always beaten to the water by those not quite as sick as he.  I just believe in all that time, I would have squirmed my way to the edge of that pool, and been hanging on the edge with one finger for the moment God presented  the solution so I could jump on it before anyone else could even blink!    Thirty eight years is a lot of time to ready yourself for action, when God presents the way.

When the man told Jesus he just couldn’t get to the water. Jesus told him to get up, pick up his mat and walk.  Take action!! Get up.   He told him to get away from the window and Get UP!

“Pick up your mat.”   Clean up your mess.  Now my Mother might argue that this is a biblical commandment to make up your bed and maybe it is.  Maybe Jesus was telling us to clean things up around us  and be ready when I tell you what to do.   Pick up your mat and get ready!   Get your affairs in order so that you are ready to walk when Jesus says to walk.  You’ll notice so far he didn’t say lay there and wait until the water comes to you!

“Arise pick up your mat and Walk!”   Step out and start walking.  Stop sitting by the window waiting for your miracle to run up in the front yard like Ed McMan with a big check!  Start walking.  God can’t guide you in the right direction if you are sitting still.    You might make some wrong turns, but as long as you are walking God can guide your steps, even turn you around if you get off track.

Stop now waiting on someone else to change so that your circumstances get better, begin changing yourself.   Don’t wait and pray that God instructs someone else to put you in the pool, begin praying that God will give you the strength and wisdom required to ‘get in the pool’  yourself, so to speak.

Don’t sit in front of the TV day in and day out waiting on the right numbers to come up in the lottery so that your bills are paid off.  Get a job, even if you are flipping burgers, your on your way to paying your debt.  Who knows,  God could have already stirred the waters at McDonalds and the man waiting to give you your dream job eats BigMacs daily! You just need to jump in the pool to meet him!

  If your hurting, find someone that is hurting worse and lift them up.  There is no greater blessing than to be a blessing to someone else. 

 The bottom line is, stop looking out the window daydreaming about the day that your miracle appears.  Get up, pick up your mess and  start walking!

Facing Lifes Bullys

I am the Mother of two boys and quite a few of those adopted kind that just show up at your house one day, most likely in the kitchen, and begin calling you Mom as well. If you have had teenagers then you know exactly what I mean. All of the kids, adopted or not are grown now and making their own way in life, but tonight my thoughts drifted back quite a few years to when they were much younger.

I am not good at remembering exact ages, but for the story sake I am going to guess that my youngest son, Bryan was around 13 years old and he and a friend had talked us into dropping them at the bowling alley alone for a few hours where they could spend a small fortune in the game room.

As the story was related to me later, the two boys were playing a round of pool when a bully came on the scene. Every town has one, and this particular night he was focused on my son. At this time in his life he had not yet begun to fill out, so he was still a bit small for his age. (He is probably going to argue that fact with me) That combined with the fact that he has tourettes, and had some pretty severe vocal ticks, made Bryan the bully’s target for the evening.

The bully, (I’ll continue to call him that since I don’t know his name) started in taunting and and making fun of Bryans’ ticks. Whatever game they were playing he would push his way in ahead of them and was just generally trying to pick a fight. Isn’t it funny how the biggest bully on the block always picks the smallest guy to go after? Bryan was always a fairly passive child and rarely if ever let anyone shallow enough to make fun of his medical situation bother him in the least. He in fact usually handled it far better than I did, but this guy just wasn’t going to let up until he got the confrontation he was after.

Now, not having been there I just imagine that the point came when Bryan had taken just about all he could and refused to back away and that is when the bully started backing him down, taunting and calling him out for the fight. I also imagine that about that time Bryan was wondering what he had gotten himself into. The bully was around 20 years old and apparently a very large young man that dwarfed Bryan. I pictured my baby going up against Goliath. Perhaps I should have armed him with a sling shot and stones before dropping him off!

With his young heart pounding he kept trying to back away, but the bully kept coming at him, pushing for the fight. Admit it or not, I’m sure he was getting pretty worried and looking around trying to figure how he could escape what seemed to be a sure beating. For some reason unknown to me, teen age boys just can’t be seen looking scared or asking for help from any nearby adults!

As he began to brace for the inevitable he glanced past the bully and saw his older brother fast approaching along with one of those adopted brothers, both very large young men themselves and a much better match for the bully both in strength and age. I would have loved to see the bully’s face when suddenly for no reason apparent to him, Bryan stood tall, puffed out his chest and threw back his shoulders, and stood his ground. The sight of his two brothers, gave him a sudden burst of courage and fearlessness.

Just before the bully was ready to pounce, there was a tap on his shoulder. He turned around only to be eye to eye with the two older brothers that were demanding to know what was going on. “That’s my brother your messin’ with.” . It was not so much a statement as it was a warning. Now it was the bully looking around and sizing up the situation! Realizing he was now outmatched he threw up his hands and backed down. The fight was over and not a punch was thrown.

This story came to mind and made me think how we as Christians come across various bully’s everyday. They’re not always flesh and blood bully’s, but bully’s all the same. Many of them are very large and scary bully’s that make us feel very small and scared. Some are just the bully’s of everyday life that are more aggravating than frightening, but even those little bully’s can get the best of us sometimes, but only if we forget who we are!

We are children of God, whom he loved so much he gave his son to die for us, that we might have life and have it abundantly! Do you think that if he went to that length to save us, that he would not be there to protect us? Just like Bryan’s two older brothers took it very personally when the bully was picking a fight with their younger brother, God takes it very personally when someone or something is threatening one of his children.

When these bully’s show up, whether flesh and blood, or big ugly problems that attack us and threaten to take away our peace, we need only glance around and to see that God has your back! When God is standing up for you, nothing looks very scary! We can stand tall, puff out our chest, throw back our shoulders and meet any challenge with complete confidence no matter how small we seem in it’s shadow because we know how this fight is going to end!

God will tap that bully on the shoulder and say, “Thats MY child your messin’ with!”

“No weapon that is formed against you will prosper; And every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, And their vindication is from Me,” declares the LORD. – Isaiah 54:17

Whats in Your BackPack?

I want to relate a story to you that was once told to me and I hope I do it justice. It turned on a light bulb for me and made a difference in the problems I choose to do battle with.

Each day all of us have a certain number of things that we must do. We have a certain number of problems or situations we must navigate through. Picture if you will, that as you begin your day you are outfitted with a strong backpack, laced securely around your shoulders in which you will carry the days events, problems and responsibilities. Now imagine that each of your daily responsibilities are small bricks that weigh about a half pound each.

For everything you must do or deal with today we will add a brick to the back pack.

We’ll add a brick to represent the everyday tasks, of just getting up and around, getting ready for work and seeing to the breakfast, clothes, ect that prepare you for your day. Add another brick of responsibility for that job you have to go to, and that includes the job of “just being a Mom”! In fact I would probably add a couple extra bricks for that one!

Pretty light so far. You can handle that and carry your back pack without any trouble. Add now more bricks for the school that calls and you are elected, probably without your knowledge to head up the class fund raiser, head the PTA, or supervise the next field trip. If your at work, I’m sure you will recognize a whole stack of bricks that represent many problems that come at you from every direction. The boss makes demands, your co-workers make demands ect. All new problems that you take on wheat her they are your responsibility or not.

It’s storming outside and the traffic is horrendous. Your running late now and the kids are waiting to be picked up. Who’s doing dinner? It’s fast food again? How can we afford this. The TV blew! Where’s the money coming from? Bills to pay, stops to make. Your phone rings how many times a day with those requests for “little favors” from dear friends and loved ones. Are you getting the picture? Your picking up bricks faster than you can toss em in the sack now. And it’s getting heavier.

Your growing tired and a little bent over now from the weight, but if your anything like me, you haven’t even started yet. Your husband/wife come in and has had a horrible day. They are in a bad mood, dumping on you and adding more bricks of stress to your already crowded sack.

Your child got in trouble at school today and tosses you the suspension note…. Another brick or maybe several drops in your sack and your no longer the only one tossing in those bricks. Worse, we often turn around to find that someone has just tossed their whole back sack onto your shoulders and disappeared while your knees are buckling under the weight.

I won’t go any further, I hope your getting the picture here. Take a look at your own sack. How many of the bricks in there belong to you? How many of them could be given up to God, or back to the person that put them in there to start with? Should someone else’s's anger be your stress to carry? Are you really responsible to carry the brick of consequence for even your own child’s choices?

Trying to carry your own bricks, as well as everyone else’s, will eventually break your back. Many of those bricks probably representing a large number of problems or situations that you can’t solve or change anyway, even if you wanted to, so why do we collapse under the weight of what does not belong to us in the first place?

Everyone of course has their own back sack to carry and their own daily load of bricks to put in it. One of my favorite things to say anymore is…… “Not my brick or not my back sack!” In my own personal life it has consisted mostly of forcing my children to carry their own bricks! Probably not too much different than most Mom’s, we tend to want to lighten their load so much that we break under the wieght of both our own and theirs. And truth be said, in the end we haven’t done them any favors by taking on what rightfully belongs to them.

All that said, there are certainly times when we do need to help others carry especially heavy bricks. We are in fact instructed by God to reach out and help our sisters and brothers in Christ. However, helping to carry a heavy load for a short while is not something that will break your back. It is the bricks that are left with you, for you alone to deal with that will bring you to your knees. These kinds of bricks are most often only carried for a short while with the goal being to make the load light enough that the owner can again carry the sack themselves.

Go over the bricks in your sack and determine:
Is it truely your brick to carry?
Does this brick rightfully belong to someone else? Your mate, your child, your friend, or family member?
Is this a brick that only God can handle and therefore shouldn’t be in anyone’s sack to start with?
Start dividing your bricks, and refusing bricks that aren’t yours and you’ll find your load much easier to bear!

Cash for Clunkers

You’ve no doubt heard about this great government giveaway. If you haven’t then I am going to go  on the assumption that you are living under a rock and have no internet access so your not reading this anyway!

No, no this is not about politics, or my opinion on the current mess that those elected officials have us in..

So just in case you don’t know, let me fill you in on how this works.
You bring in your old junk heap and the powers that be will give you far more than it is probably worth!
Now it does have to be a pretty bad clunker, at least bad enough that it isn’t producing an acceptable gas milage. So make sure you have a really bad clunker, not just a little bit of a clunker!

That’s  not all! When you give up your old junker, and accept this generous plan you will walk away with a brand new shiny car with all the bells and whistles. Give up the old and get brand new and they pay you to do it! You can’t get much better than that, can you?

When times were bad and money was tight, uncle sam came through for you!

Of course there is the fact that your going to have that nasty little car note now that you didn’t have before, but, no worries, that bill won’t come due for a while and neither will the increased insurance that you weren’t  paying on the old clunker.  Maybe the boss will toss you some extra work to help cover these little unexpected  expenses!

Well that is if he hasn’t been taxed out of  business to pay for those wonderful government goodies.
You might also want to keep an eye on that check stub as well for that tax increase thats surely coming soon. After all someone has to pay for your freebies!

Let’s not worry now about all those nasty little details!  After all, your cruising through life now in a brand new  ride, with a brand new beat and you’ll be the envy of all your friends!

OK, I’m really not going on a rampage over government give-a-ways. Honest I’m not!
It’s just that I’ve got a similar plan to offer you!

Let’s call it – The Cross for Clunkers!

Catchy huh?  Well you see, it seems to me that this cash for clunkers plan isn’t exactly a new idea. While I doubt very seriously that anyone in washington is taking their ideas from God’s word, there is a very similar plan outlined there.

It doesn’t have anything to do with your ride, or lack thereof, it’s a plan to trade in your clunker of a life for a brand new one!

Let me fill you in on this plan!
In this plan we will replace the “powers that be” with God, the power that IS!
He’s offering a great deal too, only he isn’t interested in your car or it’s milage.  He wants your clunker of a life and your junker of a heart.

Unlike Cash for Clunkers you won’t have to determine if your clunker of a life is a little bit bad, or a real non producing junker of a clunker. It won’t matter if your a  pretty good clunker or the bottom of the barrel smoking and gurgling down the road clunker.  Any ole clunker of a life is welcome. Anyone!

You bring your old clunker of a life to the foot of the cross and he’ll give you a brand new one!  It’s just that simple. No contracts to sign, no new bill lurking in the not to distant future.   He won’t raise your taxes either!!

God will replace your clunker of a heart with a brand new spirit filled one, yes with all the bells and whistles! Not only are you debt free, as he paid the entire price, rather than just a debatable portion of it,  your insurance is paid up to.  Your not just in good hands now,  your in heavenly hands!

Now back to that clunker of car deal..  We all know that the minute you drive that new sweet ride off the lot, it instantly looses a lot of value and the one that “gave” it to you no longer has any interest in it at all.  If you wreck it the same day, you sure can’t go back to the dealer for another one, and on top of everything your still going to owe a debt on it!  Just to make matters a bit worse, your insurance company is going to want a lot more money to keep you in their “good hands” or they could just give up on you all together.

In the Cross for Clunkers deal, your gift is truly a paid for gift and it always appreciates in value. The dealer (God) is not only always interested but standing side by side with you everyday to protect and guide you down the road of life.
If you do manage to wreck it,  even on the same day, (This happens usually by failing to read the manual)  you can turn instantly to the dealer (God) and he will be right there to give you yet another life. Not just once, but every time, a thousand X a thousand times. The warranty never expires and the insurance is a lifetime policy that will take you straight through the gates of heaven, guaranteeing you a place at the foot of the throne!

Washington paid the price for the give-a-way by taking  from everyone including you, then giving it to a few and calling themselves the saviour of all.

Jesus paid the price with his own life. He took from no one, asked nothing in return and he IS the Saviour of all.