The good life

1 Peter 3:8-21; Heb 13:15-1

It has been my experience often that children and now grandchildren bring words of wisdom, faith and encouragement to adults.
Example#1:

I, in fear said:
"Lord, please heal my Little one from this sickness today."
"Nana, I'm already well, Jesus healed me, I'm going to school today."
She did not go to school and she did not look well, eyes still dark with circles. Yet she believed health lived in her and it did according to the Dr who examined her that afternoon.
Words filled with trust and faith that encouraged my life.

Example#2:

In late 2006, my older daughter and I talked over a few scripture, as we often do, and I mentioned Heb 13 and how it spoke to me. She, known for her kindness, said:
"I've always believe that way. When people do good, evil is not in action. So regardless of the situation choose to do good. If everyone did this, evil would not continue."
How did she get to be so mature so young. I thought parents taught the children?
Faith, love,trust and random acts of kindness influence her life.
Her words pointed to 'The good life. It encouraged me.

Hebrews guides us in this way:
Offer a sacrifice praise, the fruit of the lips that confess His name; do good and share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
'The good life'.

1 Peter guides us in this way:
Live in harmony, be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble; do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, give out blessings and receive the resulted blessing; keep your tongue from evil and your lips from deceitful speech, run from evil, do good, seek peace.

My children and now grandchildren get this message and finally...so do I.
This is 'the good life'.

My Valentine

John 3:16

I know this must be out there on the net somewhere but it actually came to me through the women's bible study I attend. Hats off to you, if you are the one that thought this one up and thank you. I keep a copy of it over my desk. It encourages me daily.

I've always known and am sure most of you do too by now, that God is the love of our lives. No one in this life can offer pure agape love, the kind of love that accepts us warts and all. Once we receive His sacrificial love for us, once we believe He is committed for all eternity, once we understand we are the love of His life, our life changes. We begin to Love.

"For God Lo V ed the world,
That He g A ve
His on L y
Begott E n
So N
T hat whoever
Believeth I n Him
Should N ot perish
But have E verlsting life."

Obedience

There's that word again, obedience. As a young Christian I thought obedience meant the Ten Commandments. Then I realized, no one can live the Ten Commandments. They were given to lead us to Christ, our only hope. Then I decided that obedience meant to keep on the straight and narrow as much as possible. That led to daily confession and repentance which depressed me. Like I can't even get through one day without failing (a product of pride). I've even known a few Christians that threw in the towel on Christianity and left the faith just because of a failure to obey the rules.

Then I discovered Grace Walk by Steve McVey and the writings of Bob George just to name a few of the grace teachers. They taught about a walk of faith not works. What freedom to know God is not irritated with me or that I am never disqualified because I fail so much.

Obedience and Trust are synonymous. Obedience to the gospel is to repent and ask Christ into your life. Obedience is trust, faith in Christ not works (though works follow). It is doing the right thing regardless because we trust His judgment and believe He knows best.

After a few years, we do begin to understand that it is just plain stupid to not do the right thing because the right thing is not as necessary for the other person as it is for us. I mean when you do what you want, experience everything your way (as a Christian) you will end up in a lot of pain. Even as a non-Christian you will end up with a lot of pain. When it is all said and done we all eventually come to the conclusion that God knows what He is doing and we will obey Him. We all end up saying "God I want to think, act, say and live your way." We repent, turn our eyes on him and say here I am help me live the way you want.

God is God and He will have it His way in the end for every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Prov 2:20-27 Phil1:6

I did it my way

When we see life through our eyes we see only personal goals, pride, lust, desires and needs unmet. If we saw life through His eyes, we'd see a peculiar people He designed for good works. We'd see the glorious things He's prepared for us; things that now, no eye has seen, no ear has heard. We'd see beyond today. We'd see life as it will become.

What do we have here on earth? Maybe 70 to 80 years, not much in comparison to eternity with Him. Not enough to invest all we have. No, the best investment is in Him and doing things His way.

It's not about us.
It's about God and His plans for us.
It's not about life's desires.
It's about His ideals
It's not about how we feel.
It's about Hm

It's not about our comfort
It's about the character He choose to develop
It's not about who I want to become.
It's about becoming like Him.
It's not about redeeming stuff to store.
It's about His redemption of me.
It's about Him

It's about our future with him
It's about His plans for our welfare not calamity
It's about the living hope.
Its about His goals for all humanity
It's about the new body and new life
Its about His eternal life living in us today and for ever
It's about Him

Lord, when it is all said and done, when I draw my last breath and stand before You, please don't let be said, "I did it my way."

God's Best

Gen 37- 47

If God has our best interest in mind, why does life so often look the opposite? Suffering, pain, loss, these are His best for us? No. These are a result of a fallen world. The great part is that regardless of what life throws our way He has a plan that promises God's best for us and those involved.

The scriptures above talks about the life of Joseph. There are plays, movies, stories for both youth and adult on this one. Yet the message never grows old and each day God's Word refreshes as if we'd never heard the story.

Listen to what these people say as a result to their various situations in this one story.

The brothers: "Surely we are being punished for our sins toward out brother."
The father: "You have deprived me of my children. First Joseph, then Simeon, now Benjamin. Everything is against me."
Another brother: "What is God doing to us?"

Sound familiar? We say things like. "Why God? Why did this happen? This is too hard for me God, you went to far. What are you doing to me?"

Well, we know the end of the story with Joseph and if we knew the end of the story about our individual journey we'd feel better. But, the walk is a walk of faith and we are asked to trust Him.

God, in this one story, saved a nation, reunited a family and made them whole.
Christ, in His story for us, saved us, plans to reunite us and make us whole.

Though for a little while it seems like life deals fatal blows, it's not true. Our future is in his hands and God's best is ahead.

The Way, The Truth, The Life

Have you ever decided in life that you knew best? Maybe God took too long to answer a prayer and you took matters into your own hands. You had a need not met, an adventure to search out, a desire to fill, or some temptation led you into selfish ambitions. Then you prayed about it and ask God to bless your decision. Yet it still turned out to be your plan not His. You proceeded on your own. Time passed, mistakes happened, life continued. Then one day you found yourself on the wrong road. Now what do you do? Ever been there? I've found myself in this position a few times and while there found everyone else there also. Why did this happen and how is this corrected. I tried to answer that dilemma in my book Faded Purple. Here is my stab at it in a nutshell.

Read: Prov 4:20-27 ; 8; Ps 105: 1-5, James 3: 13-18

Words like prudence,knowledge, discretion, pride, arrogance, faithless (perverse) speech, sound judgment, wisdom's voice, fixed gaze, level paths, guarded heart, peacemaker, mercy, good fruits, appear in these verses. They have the answer.

When we go our own way and decided to be God of our lives we get lost and sometimes so lost we can't find our way back home. The web of deception is so tangled, the light so dim, the reap what we sow so difficult there seems to be no path in sight, no logical way through. What do you do then? What?


From Faded Purple:


The runner said: The treasure is not the gold in the chest. Not even the moments with Abba in those golden chairs. The real treasure is Him. The beauty of Him and His life living in us every day now and forever.

The young girl said: I had everything I ever desired but this letter from Abba meant more to me than everything I acquired.

The child said: If Abba says no then it's a no.

The crippled one said: What our heart needs is love, value and acceptance. Babylon offers this but can't deliver.

The wise gentleman said: My failures are ever before me, but even then He lifts me.

Purple said: Oh Abba I need you, please forgive me. My life is yours

Abba said: My promises are true. Welcome home child.

You see the King of Kings is Abba, our daddy. He will never let us down for He has decided to see us safely home.

Time goes by

Luke 9:24-25

One year in my Toastmaster's group I gave a speech called 'You Can Never Go Back.' I'd just come back from a visit to my home state. At that time it had been 25 yrs since I'd seen the area. Desire to walk the halls of the old High school again, or to place my feet in the river where we used to swim, or to feel, taste and smell the ocean as I did then guided me.

The trip left empty sadness inside. I was no longer seventeen and the new high school looked old. The building surrounded by a gated fence still nestled in a wooded area but resembled a prison. No longer twelve and able to swim the river near the old bridge was not as big a disappointment as the new freeway that cut off all entrance to the swim area. The stately bridge remained only to resemble a giant ghost across a river no longer used for swimming due to pollution. Did I continue to the ocean? Of course. The beach we use to visit when I was six seemed huge to me then. Now it resembled a cove clutter with seaweed, dirty sand and careless people who left garbage here and there. Disillusioned, I warned others not to relive the past but to live for today.

Twenty yrs later I have a new perspective. Even though the conclusion I came to is accurate 'live for today' there is much to enjoy from yesterday. A few years ago I went back to the grounds of a church I attended while raising children. I stood on a grass knoll and watched people, who I did not know, flow from one place to the other. Warmth swept over me as I remembered friends, my children in Sunday Schools, pastors and leaders and how much I learned about the Lord. I also appreciate all the good news those who now walked around me would hear. A smile came to my heart, not sadness.

Why the change? I think it might deal with Luke 9: 24-25. You see, in the first experience I went back to the past to get, to revive the past and keep my life. In the second experience I remembered a life given away for the cause of Christ. When you loose you life for Him you find life for it continues on. When you keep your life and try to live it over and over you lose even what you had before because the new memory steals the old.

In this world time goes by and life ends. In Christ there is not time and life never ends.