True Balance Begins With Christ

Too much of even a good thing can throw us off balance in life. Look at what has happened to many people who have achieved great wealth or fame. It throws them off balance. I recently read about Jordy Nelson, a wide receiver for the Green Bay Packers. He signed a 39 million dollar contract with the Packers, but he still works on his family farm during the off season. He puts in 12 hour days on the farm, which shows he is trying to maintain balance in his life, rather than letting fame and fortune throw him off balance.

I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. Matthew 10:16. Chris Tiegreen, in At His Feet, explains that the opposition from the Pharisees was like the ravaging wolves. The disciples looked to their Shepherd for protection. “Today, we face similar hostility, and like the disciples we are not to be sheeplike in our attitude, but prudent and sensible. We are not to be gullible pawns, but we are not to be deceitful connivers either. We must find a balance between wisdom and vulnerability to accomplish God’s work.”

I’ve posted this Irish blessing before, but as I think about the balance needed in life, I think it bears repeating. This blessing is a good reflection of God’s character, and his hopes for us.

This blessing is all about balance, asking for just enough, not more, just enough.

Enough happiness to keep you sweet with enough trials to keep you strong.

Enough sorrow to keep you human with enough hope to keep you happy.

Enough failure to keep you humble, with enough success to keep you eager.

Enough wealth to meet your needs, not more, just enough.

An Irish Blessing

May your joys be as bright as the morning,

and your sorrows merely be shadows that fade in the sunlight of love.

May you have enough happiness to keep you sweet,

enough trials to keep you strong,

enough sorrow to keep you human,

enough hope to keep you happy,

enough failure to keep you humble,

enough success to keep you eager,

enough friends to give you comfort,

enough faith and courage in yourself to banish sadness,

enough wealth to meet your needs and one thing more;

enough determination to make each day a more wonderful day than the one before.

Humble Flowers of God's Garden

 When I was a little girl, I thought dandelions were so pretty. I’d often pick them for my Mom. She’d put them in a vase and give me a hug. Eventually she told me that dandelions were weeds. I remember thinking they are such pretty little flowers, how can they be weeds? I graduated to picking fistfuls of wild violets that grew along the roadside of our Indiana farm.

This morning, while walking with my dog, I spotted a dandelion, face up toward the sun and thought how cheerful it was. Then I thought of Jesus and how he did not chose to hang out with the hybrid, the fancy, the first class. He chose from among the common, tax collectors and ordinary fishermen. They grew an extensive root system of faith. They were hardy, they didn’t readily fall victim to the diseases of sin in society. Like the dandelion, they were useful. The dandelion has an ingenious method of seed dispersal. So too, did the disciples. The wind of the Holy Spirit blew them across the world to preach the gospel and they survived intense hardships. Like the dandelion, they had a cheerful countenance, faces lifted toward the heavens.

We should all endeavor to be more like the dandelion, with cheerful dispositions, readily dispersing seeds of faith all while being useful plants:

• Dandelion root has been used in traditional herbal medicine for hundreds of years.
• Dandelion leaves can be harvested and eaten as an addition to a green salad.
• Dandelion leaves can also be steamed or added to a stir-fry or soup.
• The flowers are sweet and crunchy, and can be eaten raw, or breaded and fried.
• Dandelion flowers can also be used to make dandelion wine.
• The root of the dandelion can be dried and roasted and used as a coffee substitute, or added to any recipe that calls for root vegetables.

This humble “weed” is actually quite a useful plant that doesn’t require expensive soils or fertilizers to grow. We only need faith in Jesus to save us and God’s Word to help us grow into useful plants in God’s garden.

Without Light We Can Not See Clearly

"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.  Matthew 5:13-16

Matthew 5:13 tells us that if seasoning has no flavor, it has lost its value. If Christians don’t make an effort to affect the world around them, they are of little value to God. We are worthless if we are too much like the world. Christians should not blend in with everyone else, we need to affect others positively by letting our light shine. If the Holy Spirit lives within us, we want others to see what Christ is like by our words and our actions – by showing our light. We hide our light by going along with the crowd, by being quiet when we should speak and by not explaining our light to others.

In this day, it is most important that we speak openly about being a Christian. In his response to Justice Kennedy’s recent opinion on same sex marriage, Justice Samuel Alito said, “people can whisper their thoughts in the recesses of their homes, but if they repeat those views in public, they risk being labeled as bigots and treated as such by governments, employers, and schools.”

"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.”        Matthew 5:11

 

Many people today talk about how the Church is “in exile” and “at the margins.” We are being pushed to maintain our beliefs as long as we don’t carry them with us in public. But we have a higher authority in Christ who said, “You are the light of the world.” Our lights can not shine if they are hidden under a bowl. God has not given us a light to be hidden or a spirit of fear. God has given us the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16). We need not apologize for offering the light of Christ to this dark world. However, we do owe our most profound contrition to God if we do not show our light by sharing the gospel. We must not be timid in this. The secular world takes offense at the gospel, but we must not be intimidated by this world.

Instead of praying for our personal situation to improve, we need to pray for God to help us be the lights he wants us to be.

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "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

Christianity and the Supreme Court

Tolerant: showing willingness to allow the existence of opinions or behaviors that one does not necessarily agree with.

Jesus said the greatest commandments were to love God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself. I can treat others with kindness and respect and love them without agreeing with everything they do or believe. I can love my neighbors without sacrificing my beliefs. I can love them and be tolerant of them without agreeing with them. 

6 Little Stories

I received this in an email this morning and thought it was sooo precious! It reminded the sender of our Bible Study lesson last week.

Once some villagers decided to pray for rain, on the day of prayer all the people gathered but only one boy came with an umbrella.
 That's FAITH

When you throw a baby in the air, she laughs because she knows you will catch her. 

That's TRUST

Every night we go to bed, without any assurance of being alive the next morning but still we set the alarms to wake up.
 That's HOPE

We plan big things for tomorrow in spite of zero knowledge of the future.
That's CONFIDENCE

We see the world suffering, but still we get married.  That's LOVE

On an Old Man's shirt was written a cute sentence, 'I Am Not 72 Years Old…  I Am Still 16 with 56 years' Experience.'

That's ATTITUDE

 Do you live your life like the above 6 stories?

Thanks FBI Barb! 

Pretty On The Inside

My Grandma was quite fond of telling me, "It's pretty on the inside that counts."  Grandma Witt and I were very close when I was little. I was lucky enough to have her in my life until I was 13. I'm the youngest child of a youngest child, so Grandma was 67 years young when I was born. She was truly an inspiration, and the most Christ-like woman I've ever known, and that is saying a lot because I've been blessed to have many, many wonderful Christ-like women in my life.

This saying has been on my mind quite a bit lately, as I think of how obsessed our society is with physical appearance. Youth and beauty are exalted far beyond and above the place they should take in our lives. A supermarket tabloid proclaimed last week that a plus-sized supermodel was bullied as a teen, and Facebook adds shout to visit a website to see kids who grew up to be ugly adults, and botched face lifts on those who try to conquer father time and reclaim their lost outward beauty. Think about it, aging can actually improve our inner beauty.

According to InStyle Magazine, the average woman spends $15,000 on cosmetics during her lifetime! That's a lot of money and cosmetics only cover outward flaws!! Shouldn't we be much more concerned with our inward flaws?  What's on the inside is what matters to God. I'm not saying we should let ourselves go all natural and be totally unconcerned with our appearance, but wow! $15,000 is a lot of money, that could feed a lot of people in a third world country. I'm saying we should be more concerned with non-cosmetic changes, with what's on the inside.

1 Peter 3:3-4
Do not adorn yourselves outwardly by braiding your hair, and by wearing gold ornaments or fine clothing: rather, let your adornment be the inner self with the lasting beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in God's sight.

1 Timothy 4:8

For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.

Proverbs 31:30
Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last; but a woman who fears the LORD will be greatly praised.

I took a shower, I have clean hair and clothes that look nice. I think I will go without make up today. Of course, I'm only going to the Post Office...

My Guest Writer for today is Judy Phillips

I love gardening, or at least my raised bed vegetable gardens. Just being in the garden is a place of relaxation and joy. Every morning I walk and check everything to see if anything got "attacked" overnight by bugs, deer, or other varmints. After an inspection I make a plan for what to do that day. Again at night Gary and I walk by and check and comment on what's going on. Everyday there is something to do. One day it might be weeding or thinning or transplanting. Another might be pruning or staking.

Some days are fertilizing and spraying. Every single day the plants must have water and of course, sunshine. Vegetable plants will not grow without plenty of sun.

There are a lot of daily things to do in a garden. Skipping a day can cause problems, but definitely skipping a number of days will mean less vegetables to enjoy. It's very much the same way with our spiritual lives. Just as We must plant in good soil to develop strong plants and root systems, so must we have willing hearts and minds to receive God's love and let it grow. Prayer and the word, fellowship with other Christians, and giving of our time, talents and money is the fertilizer, water, and sunshine to have our relationship with God flourish. And, the vegetables we harvest are the love and experiences with the Lord that we share with others. Nothing that I buy at the store is as good as what I go pick directly from my garden. There is no substitute. That is exactly the same as the relationship we have with the Lord. There is no substitute for His love and salvation.

As we enjoy our Garden Get Away I hope we will let the Lord grow his Garden of His fruits in our lives.