Sheep Dog Faith

Somewhere in time, last week, I went grocery shopping like I do every Saturday.  This day, however, there was a large Sheep Dog sitting right outside the exit door waiting.   Just sitting there, staring at the door and waiting.  I smiled and assumed the owner must have gone in for something quick.  I grabbed the grocery cart pulled out my list and went shopping.

After I was done, I left and the dog was still sitting there.  By this time, there was a crowd of ladies that were approximately my age or older all standing around saying things like – look how sweet, so obedient – the dog looked a little worried to have this crowd around him, but yet he didn’t move.

That is when it came to me.  I need to have the faith of a Sheep Dog instead of the faith of a Terrier.

I had a Terrier a long time ago.  If I had taken my little dog to the store and told it to sit and wait.  He would sit, he would stay, but when my back was turned, or he could no longer see me.  He would wait; maybe a minute, and then he would come looking for me.  He would find kids to pet him, things on the ground to eat, and basically be distracted on his way to find me.

Sometimes we have the faith of a Terrier.  We know God loves us and is working out things for our good, but we think we need to help him.  We think we need to run off in search of answers instead of waiting for God to bring the answer to us.  Maybe that is not a we – but a me – I have the problem.

To me one of the hardest verses in the Bible is:

Psalm 46:10King James Version (KJV)

¹⁰ Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

Being still is hard.  Knowing that God will be exalted and being still and waiting for it to happen.  Sometimes that is hard, but there is nothing we can do that will make God move any faster. He timing is always correct. We need the faith of the sheep dog that will patiently wait for his mater to return.  We need to patiently wait for God to bring about what we need, in His time.

 Sometimes God uses the most unusual things to teach me lesson. That day it was an obedient sheep dog.  What does God have to show you today?

 

 

 

 

Merry Christmas

The Christmas Star

 

 

Somewhere in time, a little more than 2,000 years ago, there was a star in the sky so bright that wise men followed it for months. What was this star?

I heard a theory that it wasn’t a star, but a group of planets that aligned to look like one bright star.  I would believe this since the wise men had to follow this star for quite a while, so watching planets move makes sense.

I also heard this theory doesn’t work because of the timing of when this happened.  This theorist said it must have been a supernova.  I can believe that as well. It is very bright and eventually burns out.

All of the theories are interesting – but God was proclaiming a miracle.  God was announcing His presence on earth.  Did he really need either of these events to make that announcement?

In the Bible there is a fish so large, it could swallow a man and keep him alive. There is hand, without a body, that wrote on a palace wall.  There is a donkey that spoke to a man.  Fishes, hands, donkeys are all natural things – but what they did was not natural, it was supernatural and God ordained.

My theory of that night is not based on science, astronomy or even theology.  My theory is based on a God so powerful, so magnificent that no natural event could proclaim His entrance to earth.

On the night that is the most important in history so far, I think God did something special  He sent a star that was never seen before, or will be again, to light the night sky.  He sent it to guide the wise men, to astound the shepherds and to light a small stable where a child was to be born.  This child would change the world forever. 

Blind eyes would see, lame would walk – the miraculous would be on earth for 33 years.  This event required a special sign, a special announcement.

Psalm 19King James Version (KJV)

19 The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.

God used the star to guide people to Christ.  Today, you and I are the star to guide people to Christ.  Look up and marvel at the wonders of God and then look around and see who you can share God with. 

 

Timothy

 

 

Somewhere in time, well in the past few months, I haven’t posted a blog.  I knew I was getting busy at work, so I changed to monthly not weekly – but then it got busier than expected.  It’s amazing how something you do with such regularity can be so easily forgotten. 

During this time, I did manage to get another short story in print.  This one was inspired by a song.  The main character is a young man named Timothy. 

Paul wrote letters to a young man named Timothy.  We know he was young and we know he was a leader in the church.

1 Timothy 4:12King James Version (KJV)

¹² Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

When I created the main character for my book, I wanted to name him Timothy.  I wanted to portray a young person so excited for the Lord that he wants to tell the world.  I wanted to get something of what I thought the Timothy Paul spoke about, might have been like.  Not perfect, but truly seeking to serve the Lord.

The song tells a story of a Teacher, a Farmer, a Prostitute and a Preacher all on a bus.  At the end, the prostitute ends up with the preachers Bible.  This captivated me.  What kind of a person would not only take up a conversation with a woman of ill repute – but take it so far, she is left with his Bible.  This thought process led me to create Timothy.

He is a young person looking for someone to share the word of the Lord with.  Below is a passage from the book:

Timothy purposefully held himself back from boarding the bus.  He was silently praying. "Lord, look at these people's hearts and tell me who to sit with.  Give me someone that needs your love today."

I wish I was like that.  I wish I looked for opportunities to share the love of Christ with those around me.  I fly sometimes for work, but I don’t think – what an opportunity to share with the person next to me.  Maybe I should start thinking like that.

I have the song below.  Maybe it will inspire you to inspire others.

 

 

Happy Easter

He is Risen Indeed!



Somewhere in time, tomorrow – we celebrate Easter. 



In this Easter season, we celebrate the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  There is no tomb we can visit to honor our God, the tomb is empty.  


Jesus was whipped with a cat of nine tails.  This is a special whip that has several endings.  Each tip has pieces of glass and pottery imbedded. The purpose is not to cut the skin, but it was meant to grab the flesh and rip it off.  When Pilate said, “Behold the man”, it could be because he was surprised that Jesus survived the beatings.

 

This is not the end.



The Roman soldiers put a robe on his beaten and bloody back and a crown of thorns on his head and then they mocked him.  Pulling the robe off after the blood started to congeal into the fabric, they would replace the robe with a cross.  He didn’t have the strength to carry the cross, so a man was pulled from the crowd and required to carry the cross for Jesus. Once at the location, they nailed spikes into his hands and heals.  They left him hanging in a position that made it difficult to breathe, and the pain was unbearable. 

 

The sky turned dark.



Matthew 27:50-56 (The Message Bible) “ But Jesus, again crying out loudly, breathed his last.  At that moment, the Temple curtain was ripped in two, top to bottom.  There was an earthquake and the rocks split in pieces. What’s more, tombs were opened up, and many bodies of believers asleep in their graves were raised. (After Jesus’ resurrection, they left the tombs, entered the holy city, and appeared to many). The captain of the guard and those with him, when they saw the earthquake and everything else that was happening, were scared to death. They said, “This has to be the Son of God.””

 

The curtain in the temple was torn right down the middle.



After all of this, a centurion, someone experienced with death, used a spear to pierce Jesus through the side and into the heart.  From Jesus’s side, blood and water flowed.  This is a sure sign of death. 

 

An earthquake shattered the rocks.

On Sunday morning, the followers of Jesus were hiding out in fear for their lives.  A couple of women went to the tomb to finish preparing Jesus’s body for his continued burial, but the tomb was empty.

 

The tomb was empty!

 

The wages of sin is death.  God knew the only way to make provision for us is to have a perfect sacrifice.  Christ is the sacrifice for our redemption and for our salvation.  As we celebrate Easter, let’s remember the sacrifice behind the holiday.  

 

God is a

Gentleman

 

 

Somewhere in time, this last week – I was in the lunch room at work and they play a popular news channel on the television.  I was not watching it, but one commercial caught my ear so I looked up.  It was a man telling me that America’s founding fathers wanted to restrict religion and we should join his cause.  He ended it by saying, “I’m not afraid to burn in hell.”

I felt bad for the man.  First of all he doesn’t know enough about the history of the country he lives in or he couldn’t make a statement like he did.  The men that founded America didn’t want the government telling people what to believe – but they did want people to be free to worship God as they please.  What this man was proposing would limit when and where I can show my love for God. 

This is the first Amendment of the American Constitution:

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

 

Many times what we hear now is more along the lines of “prohibiting the free exercise” – which is not what they had in mind.

But on to his next statement that he was not afraid to burn in hell.

I have also heard other people say since God is love  - we don’t have to worry, he won’t send us to hell.

Here is my problem with that.  God is a gentleman.  He will not force people that want nothing to do with Him to spend eternity with Him.  Only those who choose to follow Christ have to worry about an eternity in his presence. 

Romans 10:9New King James Version (NKJV)

⁹ that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

For me, I confess the Lord Jesus and I believe – no I know that Jesus was raised from the dead.  I’m personally looking forward to spending eternity in the presence of God.  I pray for those who want to choose otherwise.

Love is a Choice

Happy Valentine’s Day

 

 

Somewhere in time, today, it’s Valentine’s Day.  This is a holiday that some say was invented by the Greeting Card Company, but it does trace back to a Priest. 

There really was a man that the Catholic Church recognizes as Saint Valentine.  He was a Roman priest, who defied the orders of the emperor Claudius and performed marriages for the young soldiers who were in love, but forbidden by Claudius to get married.  

Listening to the radio the other day, they were talking about Valentine’s Day.  The focus was on what do you give, or what do you want to get.  No word of a man that sacrificed his life to perform wedding ceremonies or what love truly is about.

If this is a day to celebrate love, why don’t we celebrate what love is?

Love is a choice.

Love isn’t always candy, flowers and stuffed animals – maybe it never is.  I like flowers, but I have been given flowers by people who don’t really love me.  Love isn’t a feeling.  It may start out that way, but feelings change, love doesn’t. Love chooses to stay together, even when things are tough.  Love gives when the other can’t. 

If you don’t believe love is a choice – ask a parent whose child has gone astray.  They don’t have warm fuzzy feelings, but they have love.  They pray, they worry, they cry and they care – all because of love.

Christ is our perfect example of love.  We did nothing to earn it and we do nothing to deserve it, but His love is still there.  God chooses to love us.

 

Romans 5:8King James Version (KJV)

⁸ But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

 

 

A Time to Change

A Time to Stand Still

 

 

Somewhere in time, things can change.  I like change, but sometimes things don’t change.  Either end of that is stressful for some people.  To some people, they are very content with things staying the same.

People like me, well if something doesn’t change – we at least rearrange the furniture.  There has to be change.  I feel without it, I’m not making forward progress -as you can tell, I kind of hate being stuck.  

I was reminded of the third chapter of Ecclesiastes:

Ecclesiastes 3 King James Version (KJV)

3 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

² A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

³ A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

⁴ A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

⁵ A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

⁶ A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

⁷ A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

⁸ A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

 

I will be changing my blog from weekly (I have missed a few weeks already) to monthly.  This way, I can save up all my great blog ideas and just select one.