Category: Inspiration

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WANT TO SHOW YOUR FAITH? PLANT A TREE

As a Christian I try to make sure my faith is reflected in what I do and how I respond to situations. Trust me when I say that I don’t always win that battle, especially the part, of responding to situations, but I am a work in progress.

I have asked numerous Christians how they show their faith and the answers were interesting. Several people said they tithe. Some then went on to mention other things they did but I found it interesting that their first response was about money. One person stopped and that was all that she mentioned. Now, don’t get me wrong, tithing is important. God not only mentions it in the Bible numerous times but it is the only test he gives his people (Malachi 3:10). However, in my opinion, it is a more personal manifestation of a person’s faith and doesn’t usually impact other people on a personal level.

Many people mentioned supporting charities. Others mentioned their work at their church such as teaching the youth or working with the teens. Others mentioned other volunteer work they did at their church.

Some people mentioned missionary work out of the area they live in. Some had gone away for as long as a year and others each year for a week or two. People talked about teaching other people about Christ or building homes and churches.

Others explained how they worked in prison ministries. They said that although the numbers they saw accepting Christ were often low they still feel that the ones they saved were worth their effort. The people who work with girls who have been victims of human trafficking explained that even though it broke their hearts when they heard the girls’ stories they still felt it was the best way for them to show and act on their faith.

Several women mentioned making meals for people when they have had some tragedy befall them. This one especially touches my heart as I have always told my girls that if you want to show people you care: bring food. A few mentioned organizing a meal train. I have to say that organizing a meal train can be a real hassle. Lots of people will give you the most ridiculous reasons why they would like to help but can’t. Then you will have the people who confirmed for a certain day and then forget or just let you know last minute that they can’t. On those days I would give a big salute to God for the creation of places like KFC where I would be running last minute to fill that days dinner.

I have known women who rocked AIDS babies or who volunteer in hospitals to rock babies abandoned by family. They read or play with children who again have no one visiting them. I am reminded of Jesus’s words regarding children. Matthew 18:5 “He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

I have a friend who was a wonderful prayer warrior for me and my daughter when my daughter was in Intensive Care for a couple of weeks. A year later she was diagnosed with cancer but that didn’t stop her. Even when she was in a hospital bed in her living room she kept in touch with the people who sent her prayer requests. She is doing much better as the Lord has worked on healing her and her prayer work is still going strong. Praying for others is something any of us can do and we should remember that praying for each other is what we are supposed to do as a Christian. James 5:16 says, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” One of the good things about social media is that you can get a prayer chain going quickly. I depend on my prayer warriors often and I love the privilege of praying for others.

There are many ways to show your faith. Your faith is reflected in the jokes you tell, the TV shows and movies you watch and the music you listen to. Faith should come down to the simple fact of you wanting to show God that you are doing your part to help others get to know Him. If you are listening to music with filthy lyrics or shows that glorify Satan then why would you expect anyone to want to follow your God? It isn’t complicated. However, if you want an easy way to show your faith, plant a tree. Plant a tree even though you know you will never sit under its branches. Now that’s faith!!

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THE REAR VIEW MIRROR

A couple of years ago I did an essay on this but I decided it was time to up date this topic.

When you are driving the front windshield is what you are concerned about the most but you keep an eye on the rear view mirror. We don’t want some issue to sneak up on us and I imagine every driver can remember a time when they hadn’t looked in the rear view mirror in a while and then, WHAM. a big semi truck or worse a police officer is right behind you and maybe you are going a bit too fast. If you don’t have balance between watching the front windshield and the rear view mirror you can crash.

Normally I feel this approach is best in life too. Check the rear view mirror of your life occasionally but don’t let it dominate your future and cause you to alter the good that may be right in front of you. Too many people live in the past to the point that it cripples their ability to move forward and be successful in the future. We all know some one like the 40 year old that hasn’t gotten past the winning touch down that saved the game for his team during his senior year of high school. Then there is the former prom queen that really thought she was going to Hollywood .When that didn’t happen she spent her 20’s and 30’s obsessed with her looks and all her relationships were shallow and went no where. If we lose focus and get out of balance looking forward and back then we can crash too.

As a Christian I know how difficult it can be to forgive our selves for the bad choices we made in the past and it is easy to let that guilt keep us from moving forward.

We all know someone who stepped out and tried a new business or venture of some kind and when it failed they emotionally folded. Instead of looking back on that failure and learning from it they play it over and over in their heads and that keeps them from ever trying again.

Thomas Edison was told by his teachers that he was “too stupid to learn anything.” It is a good thing for all of us that he didn’t let those words become the focus of his rear view mirror. He went on to have over 1000 patents including the phonograph and electric lamp.

Most of our lives are mundane routine affairs. When I worked for a branch of the Crime Victim’s Board I used to say that it was either feast or famine. I would be sitting at my desk keeping the cobwebs at bay and then suddenly a crisis case appears and I was lucky if I could occasionally get in a full breath. That is what most of our lives are like. We need to be able to take the exceptional moments, whether positive or negative, and file them where we can access them when necessary but not let those moments dominate our day to day lives. We need to keep moving forward and we can’t do that if we are always looking at the past for our emotional support.

The Bible has numerous verses telling us to seek wisdom above all else. Proverbs 3:13 says, “Wisdom is worth more than silver; it brings more profit than gold…” I think the best place to find wisdom, after the Bible of course, is by looking back in our rear view mirror and learning from both the mistakes and the correct choices we made in our life.

However, I do see an exception to this belief. We need to look into our rear view mirror and remember a saner time in this country. We need to remember when women were women and men were men. When parents made life altering decisions for their children and not teachers or elected officials. We need to remember a time when we had leaders that put this country first. After all they were voted into office to represent the people of this great country. We need to look back at time when neighbors knew each other and were there for each other during good times and especially bad times.

As we get older there is a ton of minutia to sort through as we make decisions. As we are doing this we need to “delete” the things that keep us from moving forward. This isn’t always easy but it is the best way to sort out the weeds that can choke our ability to make good choices going forward. I think of it in the same vein as when you are moving to a different location. What better time to go through the closets that hold all of our old “stuff” and get rid of what we don’t need or want as it just takes up space. We don’t need minutia taking up space in our heads either especially when that minutia can cripple us going forward.

So, get out your glass cleaner and wipe off your personal rear view mirror. Then begin to sort and throw out what ever is keeping you from achieving what God has in store for you. Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you, ‘ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.”

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BUT WHAT IF??

Don’t let your new year begin with these three crippling words keeping you from the success you deserve. Those three words are ‘but what if?’

As a Christian I know what the Bible says regarding worrying. Matthew 6:34 says, “The worries of the day are sufficient for the day. Don’t worry about tomorrow as tomorrow will be anxious for itself.” Yet, the human part of me finds me saying, “but what if?” when I get an idea or thought that is different from my normal day to day thoughts and actions.

If you are like me you can look back on times in your life when you wanted to step out and take a chance and then those three little words popped into your head and BAM you didn’t give it a try.

This year try to remember that it is okay to try and fail because you can try again! Want to learn a new language? Don’t listen to the naysayers who will tell you that you are too old. Want to get that degree you never finished? Head to the college and talk to someone about what is involved and then step out and go for it. Things may not be easy or go smoothly but worthwhile things rarely are do.

Imagine how many medical inroads might have been made already if the seeds of opportunity had not died in the ground because some one thought, ‘but what if?’ How much more technology would be available today in all fields of our lives if the thoughts had not died on the vine because someone thought, ‘but what if?’

Those three words are often the result of the fear we have of being mocked or not being successful in front of our family and peers. This year let us try to throw the fear, that keeps us from achieving everything that God has put into our grasp, into a deep hole never to be seen again.

Human ingenuity is one of God’s greatest gifts to us. However, it can’t be achieved fully if we don’t step out and do whatever we can do live our lives to our fullest potential. Is it always easy? No, of course not but we need to keep pushing forward. If we didn’t we would still be living in the Dark Ages.

Look at Marie Curie. She was a woman in a field totally dominated by men and yet she didn’t let society stop her or tell her to “stay her lane.” Due to her facing all those difficulties she went on to advance medical science through her discoveries in radiation.

Louis Pasteur ignored the laughter and mockery when he tried to educate people on the value of vaccinations, pasteurizing milk and other techniques to prevent disease. Both Pasteur and Curie are responsible for saying millions of lives.

These are just two examples. Most of us will not make that kind of world wide impact but if all of us made a positive impact, even a small one, in our family or community maybe that would be the seed someone needs to make a mighty impact.

So, if you are looking to make a New Years Resolution, how about deciding to not let those three words, ‘but what if?’ run your life this year.

Happy New Years to all of my family and friends!!

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2nd Chronicles 7:14

” If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. “

This is an important passage in the Bible and we need to remember it, especially now. Before I get into that more I want to give a brief history lesson.

We are the only country in the history of the world to have a revolution that wasn’t followed by another revolution or a coup. Then we become the only country in the history of the world to have a Civil War and not have it followed by a revolution or a coup. Think about that for a minute. What a blessed country we live in and that is because God has had His hand of this awesome country.

Now, think about countries like Afghanistan where the tribes have been fighting each other for thousands of years and it is still on going. Their hate for each other keeps them from having a productive first world country. Then think about the fact that less than eighty years after the Civil War Southern boys and Northern boys fought together to end Nazism and Imperial Japan!!

Keep in mind that most people didn’t move far from where they were born through out their lives up until WWII. After the men went to war the women moved all over the country to take the jobs working in the industries that kept the war supplied. You had Southern and Northern women working side by side. They helped with each other’s children and were there to comfort the wives who got the call that they all feared. When the war ended their men joined them and now families, that prior to the war would never have met, let alone lived in harmony with each other, began to create the neighborhoods that would become the new back bone of our country. Oh, there were still issues. Some Southerners still felt the Civil War was just in a pause and there were Northerners who looked down on Southerners . The Civil Rights movement began and finally the last vestiges of inequality would begin to melt away. It would not be an easy journey but America showed once again that it can do anything.

The bottom line is that no country will be or continue to be successful if it did not start with the Judeo/Christian principals we did and then continued to fight for equality for everyone. Keep in mind that we have helped to free from tyranny over a billion people!!

The United States is not perfect but our goal since the conception of this country was to give as fair a playing field as possible to its citizens. This was based on the principles which the Bible teaches. Our Founding Fathers built our Constitution based on Judeo/Christian principles. If you don’t believe that or you question this statement I suggest you purchase the Founder’s Bible. This Bible intersperses the beliefs of our Founding Fathers with letters, speeches and other documents from that time. It also quotes leaders from past the time of the creating of the Constitution which again shows the belief system of these leaders. I know, I know – many of our Founding Fathers owned slaves and slavery is an awful stain on our history but look what we have accomplished despite that stain. What other country had thousands upon thousands of their own citizens fight and die to free those slaves?

We have gone so far a drift from those principles and it is scary. For most of our history students were taught who God was and even public schools opened with a prayer. It was generic and didn’t mention any particular denomination. If they were being raised by Atheists, which was rare then, they could stand quietly or go to the office. Students were raised to honor those who served in the military. They stood and put their right hand over their heart when the flag went by them. They honored first responders. They honored and were respectful of their elders. They were taught please and thank you. They were taught that communities work best when everyone respects the rights and belongings of others. They were taught that hard work was the way to a successful life and that expecting others to pay your way was not acceptable.

Now, we have people who actually want to be the president of the United States fighting for the right to abort a baby right up until the moment of birth! These same people are pushing for free health care, free college education, free housing and no borders which can keep us a sovereign nation! Everything that was good about this country is being crushed under a torrent of evil that is being pushed on us by people with no moral compass and that means they do not have God controlling their lives. All these people want is power and we truly need to fear people like that.

We need a revival in this country! We all need to remember 2nd Chronicles 7:14 and we need to pray for God to keep his hand on this country and we all need to pray hard.

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Notre Dame – Just A Building?

I have read a lot of people express that Notre Dame is just a building and all the money to fix it could be used in better ways. Over a billion dollars has been donated to help restore the cathedral. That tells me it is more than just a building to a lot of people.

I do not believe that Notre Dame is just a building and I will explain why I feel this way. Years ago I read that a true sign of faith is to plant a tree even though you know you will never sit under it’s branches. That is how I see a cathedral like Notre Dame. It took over 200 years to build it. It was built to the glory of God. Generations of men worked on it because they loved God and yet they worked day after day and year after year knowing they would never see it completed. I don’t know anyone who does that today.

It is obvious that life today is far superior to life back then. This means we have the opportunity to do many things to the glory of God such as missionary work, and supporting organizations such as Samaritan’s Purse to name two but we don’t do anything on the level of Notre Dame. In this modern, fast moving world most of us suffer from some amount of ‘immediate gratification’ syndrome. In our work and even our everyday lives we look for the most expedient, efficient and inexpensive way to complete any task. A new building involves all kinds of bids and sadly often goes to the lowest bidder. It is hard to imagine any building built today lasting 850 years.

We need to remember that at this time there was a belief in God and all he can do in our lives that sadly we don’t see anymore. We have way too much faith in science. Now, don’t think I am against science. It is thanks to science that we have the medical breakthroughs that allow us to live healthier and happier lives. It is why we have the technology that allows us to fly, communicate in the blink of an eye, watch TV and on and on. However, too many people have forgotten the Creator and worship the creations instead. Cell phones are a must in today’s fast paced world yet they have become a downfall for our society interacting with each other. This of course is a balance issue but again all propagated by science. The Bible is clear on the importance of God’s people interacting with each other so I am pretty sure He is not pleased with how we are using some of the technology we have today. I only need say the word “computers” and we all know the good and bad that they can open up to users.

Notre Dame stands for all, that today is not, when it comes to a relationship with God. People needed him in a more visceral way back then. Life was so fragile that the slightest cut could lead to sepsis and boom your dead! The life expectancy at the time the Cathedral was built was 31 years for a male. If he lived to be 20 he might get make it to 45 and if he lived to be 30 he might see the 50’s. Yet, despite knowing they probably wouldn’t live long, hundreds of men worked tirelessly so that one day a building, unlike any other, would stand to honor God.

No, Notre Dame is not just another building. My prayer is that the people of France will remember why it was built. The country has become more and more secular to the point where Christianity is just another word in their lexicon. I hope they will look at those incredible stained glass windows and remember that they are not just beautiful but that they represent an event from the Bible. We need to remember that when the Cathedral was being built Bibles were hand written so only the very rich could ever hope to own one. Add to that the fact that only a small percentage of the population was literate and able to read the Bible. Yet, and I can’t stress this enough, men worked tirelessly for 200 years to build Notre Dame and all for the glory of God!

Today approximately 63% of the French people claim to be Christians but only about 5% actually attend church or have their faith dictate their life decisions. Thus, most people consider France to be a secular country. I pray that this tragic event will lead the French people back to God as they remember why this incredible piece of architecture was built.

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Luke 12:48

Luke 12:48 is one of my favorite bible verses. It says, “To whom much is given; much is demanded.”

I have had people over the years immediately get their dander up when I talk about this verse and tell me that the reason they don’t go to church is because it is all about money. What? I tell them that there is nothing here that says Jesus was talking just about money. Jesus talked about money a lot but in this case He is talking about all our gifts but let’s talk about money for a minute.

The bible is clear that everything on Earth is the Lord’s so all the money we have is His but He let’s us use it and we are supposed to be wise with it. The only time He asks us to test Him is in Malachi 3: 9-10 when He says that if we tithe we will see the blessings and he even says to test Him. Does this mean we don’t get to Heaven if we don’t tithe? No, but when we tithe and share our blessings our lives are enriched.

I think that people forget the gifts that they have because too often we only think of gifts in a monetary way. There are gifts of art, music, writing, speaking, hospitality, organizational skills and I could go on and on. We should certainly use our gifts to make money if we have the opportunity but we should also remember to make sure as Christians that we always ask if Jesus would be welcome to come to the event or see the work we just completed and how we completed it.

As Christians we also need to remember to use our talents in a volunteer way too. I knew an attorney who would do at least one adoption a month and never charge as he considered it a way to give back. I know doctors who spend a week or two a year doing surgeries free in poor areas or countries. There are musicians who will not charge for certain church events or fund raisers and artists who will donate their time and talent for a fund raiser. All these people are practicing the tenets of Luke 12:48.

When I talk about this I hear all the usual excuses. I’m too old. I’m too young. I didn’t go to college. Then there is my all time favorite; I would love to but I don’t have the time.

First off if you are a more “seasoned” member of the human race then you have a ton to offer. You have insight and wisdom that only comes with the years you have lived. You are probably more patient too. You know that the expression, “This too shall pass.” is a true statement. Call your church or nearest Senior Citizen Center and I guarantee you that you will find that your talents, even the ones you acquired just from living, are in need somewhere. Using them will make your life all the richer.

If you are young then you have energy and stamina. You also have innovative ideas that as we get older we often push to the back of our minds because everyday living gets in the way. There is no end to the number of agencies that will grab you up in a New York minute if you offer your time. Remember even if you don’t have a specific talent your hidden talent will come to the forefront.

You don’t need to be a college graduate in order to have something to offer others. Maybe you are a great cook, baker, sewer, mechanic, plumber, electrician etc. All of these talents as well as numerous others can be used by various organizations. If you are a college graduate and have a professional talent it won’t take long for you to find a place that would love your assistance.

Too busy? Really? I bet if you look at your schedule you will find that you have chosen to put yourself under the proverbial gun as you go day to day. I know people who are busy with jobs and families but find time to put even a couple of hours a week or month toward a volunteer endeavor. You must decide what your priorities are day to day. The Lord gives all of us 1440 minutes each day. What we do with them is on us. Remember you can do a lot things with those minutes but you can’t save them. We need, as Christians, to make sure we are using them correctly and to God’s glory.

This is what Luke 12:48 means to me. I hope that if you agree with me that you will reevaluate your daily schedule and look at where you might volunteer and help to make your community a little richer. If you already are doing that, well, as a member of God’s Kingdom I thank you.