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Are Christians Like Woodpeckers?

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Are Christians Like Woodpeckers?

I peered out my window the other day and saw an amazingly huge Woodpecker stabbing at the Crab Apple tree.  I watched in awe as he made his rounds, looking for whatever grubs he might find.  Somehow, it reminded me of people and how often we, yes, each one of us, look like that bird, seeking whom we might devour.  Looking for the holes and grubs in other people’s lives.  Trying to feed ourselves and feel better for all the wrong we see in the world.

But then, I saw in my mind’s eye, Jesus.  Yes, Jesus.  I thought of how I used to think of Him as one who also looked for the flaws and sins in each of our lives.  You see, my old-school, Catholic upbringing somehow gave me this picture of Jesus.  The One who judges.  I guess I heard of Him as judge and thought He was constantly watching and judging and condemning us.  So many of the early years of my salvation were spent wondering and worrying and watching everything I did to make sure I was in line with God.  Now that’s a lot of work(s)!

I am ever so grateful that God has done a great work in my life in recent years.  He has given many lessons to bring me to a true knowledge of Who he is and how he works in our lives.  Jesus saves now and judges later.  We only need to trust and obey and love to find health and wholeness in our life.  And then the real kicker?  We offer that same love to those around us.  Amazing simplicity!

So the moral of this Woodpecker story?  Let’s not allow old ideas to be master of our thoughts and hearts.  Let’s not be Woodpeckers in other’s lives, casting judgment, and searching for the grubs.  Let’s not use Christianity as an excuse to be the microscope peering into other people’s lives.  And certainly, let’s not picture Jesus as One who sits on the throne just waiting for our sin to pop out.

God loves us.  Jesus came to save the sinner and forgive past, present, and future sins.  All we need to do is follow Him, trusting that He is God.  Let Him do the rest.

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Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.  We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.  By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.  There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.  We love, because He first loved us. 1 John 4:15-19
When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all his angels are with him, he will sit on his glorious throne.  The people of every nation will be gathered in front of him.  He will separate them as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.  He will put the sheep on his right but the goats on his left.  Matthew 25:31-33

Are Christians Like Woodpeckers really final

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Let Pain Do It’s Perfect Work

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Do you try to avoid pain, sadness, or discouragement? There's a better way. God tells us to mourn and weep, to let it grow us through the hard times. We live in a society that does it’s utmost to avoid pain.  We are told to “be happy,” “put a smile on your face,” and “grab a Coke, Starbucks, or Budweiser.”  You name it, there’s a slogan or a product to keep us feeling anything other than pain, sadness, or discouragement.

Yet, all we need are the Scriptures to see that God has other plans for us.  In James 4:9, we are told to mourn and weep.  This sounds like depressing advice, but Ellicott’s commentary reminds us that “For wretchedness, sorrow, and tears are the three steps of the homeward way to peace and God.”   It appears God wants us to know we have a better future than what presents itself today.  There is a better way.  We could be better people if we would only let God and the circumstances He allows into our lives do their work.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.   Matthew 5:4

My father died November 4, 2015.  It was a day that will be forever etched in my memory.  The man who was responsible for my very being is gone.  One of only a few persons who truly care about my life is no longer in my life.

As I was talking about my experience with some friends, they shared about how our society keeps death and sickness at bay; we clean up the messiness and anguish of death, confining it to hospitals and nursing homes.  We don’t allow it to do its work in the human soul.

I am a better, stronger person for having helped my Dad from this world into his spiritual spot in Heaven.   It was messy and painful and not a pretty picture.  Yet, I believe I grew a much deeper perspective of what it means to live, develop the spiritual part of our life (souls), and to leave this earth, our physical existence.

Most people in this world believe this is their only existence.  Their souls are empty spaces, void of life, not nurtured to know the living God.  They are hollow, empty shells of what they could be and devoid of the great work they could do for God.  Our soul and its future is the reason for our existence.  Not to have a house with the white picket fence, or a bazillion kids (or even just 1.8), or a six-figure income (and a perfect figure!), or a summer home.  Nope.  We are sold this bill of goods as the American dream; but the only true source of life and future is in God’s plan, in Christ alone.

But somehow, someway, we must relish in this untidy, temporary life we have in order to understand the permanent, the eternal side of it.  Take time today to think of what distracts you from the “real” of life, from the messy, human part that was designed to cause us to truly consider that without God, we are nothing but dust!

Let God do His work and enter into the uncomfortable parts of life and death; don’t be afraid to feel and learn what is needed to grow deeper with Him.  See the value of your soul, not cast it away to be worried about another day.  God gave us our souls to be lived in eternity with Him.

Thank you, God for giving us eternity and for sending your Son to show the way!

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‘Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’   Isaiah 41:10
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.   1 Thessalonians 4:13

 

Living Above the Noise – New Look, New Focus

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I took a break from blogging this past six months.  I needed to regroup and discover my focus.  When I started blogging four years ago, I was still full swing into parenting and just getting my feet wet with grandparenting.  This got me thinking.  My old blog name and focus, A Mom’s Many Lessons, was feeling a bit boxed in.  My life wasn’t just about the lessons learned from being a mom, but from all the avenues my life has taken.

I quickly discovered that planning a new blog layout is not for the faint of heart!  I’ve put a lot of thought into my purpose for blogging and even into the details for my header design.  I wanted my new design to reflect where God has me in life.  I still have plenty of “lessons” to share about, but my heart is soaring like this bird in the header.  I feel like weight has lifted off my heart and God has allowed me to see what life looks like without the noise and chatter of so many things around me.

So here I am, starting a new blog, with a new focus.

My new name was in the tagline of my old blog – “A Mom’s Many Lessons…in living above the noise and for the glory of God.”  My focus for life is to seek to live above all the noise around us, that which vies for our attention and distracts us from our main goal, the one goal of glorifying God in and through all of life.  This made it easy to choose my new name!

What’s this noise I speak of?  Oh, there are too many to put into words, but here are a few:  

  • Expectations – of myself and others, often unrealistic. 
  • Perfectionism – seeking the “best” and what I think will make God and others happy.
  • Roles – being a “good” wife, a “good” mom, a “better” friend, etc., but by whose standards?
  • Church – trying to be and do what other Christians expect; pressure that comes from not believing in all that goes on in modern churches…
  • The World – balancing between being in the world but not of it.

My goal in life is be like David and Solomon, to have a heart of understanding and discernment, and to use my life to serve and follow God.  I blog to encourage you to do the same.  To live above the chatter beckoning us to veer from our main focus, to sidetrack us from following God’s best for us and our family.  So please join me as I share ideas and lessons in my quest to stay focused.

If you  follow me via email, my new blog will transfer over to your email.  If you haven’t subscribed, please do, so you won’t miss a post!  You can also follow me on Facebook and Pinterest.

Blessings as we share in this journey called life!

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Solomon’s Prayer – “You have shown great lovingkindness to Your servant David, my father, according as he walked before You in truth and righteousness and uprightness of heart toward You…so give Your servant an understanding heart…to discern between good and evil.”  1 Kings 3:6-9

Adapt – My Word For The New Year

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I’m in a group of bloggers and we’re writing about our “Word for the Year.”  I’ve been wondering what to write as I venture into this new year, so this got me thinking.  Hang in there as I explain how a simple movie changed my perspective and gave me my word.

Lesson Learned From “Pete’s Christmas”

We watched a *”really good” movie at Christmas-time called, “Pete’s Christmas”.  Yes, it was silly at times, but overall, the writer/producer got to the heart of human nature and our need to be cared about.  The storyline deals with Pete, who “messes up” Christmas but then is given numerous chances to re-live the day until he gets it right.  *caveat:  “really good” means one thing to one person and another to the next, so excuse me if we differ! :o)

Pete tries and tries, from his own perspective, to “do Christmas right” only to mess up again.  But slowly, as the story moves on, he learns to see through the eyes of his friends and family, thus learning to make Christmas perfect by loving them right where they need to be loved.  Ah…such a great message….and one I keep pondering as the days pass by.

How to Live “Perfectly”

You want to know the real lesson I got from “Pete’s Christmas”?  Every one of us gets to re-live a day, to make it “perfect” every day when we wake up.  God gives us a new day, a new week, or month or year in which to live “perfectly” by loving those around us with the everlasting love the Father had for us.  That Love that wrapped His arms around a tree and gave up His freedom to love us perfectly!  

ADAPT – My Word For This Year.

Why did I choose this word?  Because in ALL my searching for the perfect life, I’ve missed the main point of the Gospel.  That the only “perfect” is found in Christ.  I’ve struggled and worked, wondered and hoped, fought and cried when things haven’t gone my way.  But God….only He could bring me to the place of adapting to His story for my life.

I must let go of my story, just the way I thought it would go, and adapt to His plan, His ways, His method of loving me.  He loves me enough to NOT let me get everything I want, or have relationships be the way I want, or have my story look the way I thought was perfect!  Now, that is true, tough, unending love.  Love from the ONE who knows me more than I know myself.  He knows just what I need to learn to lean on Him, to depend on Him, to die to myself so I can love others in the same way He loved me!

And so I adapt.  I’m learning what this all-encompassing word means every day.  Praise God for His good lessons.  May we kneel together as we seek to find His will for our lives!

Love to each of you & Happy New Year!

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 1 Corinthians 2 – And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God.  For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.  I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling,  and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. (vs. 1-5)
…but just as it is written,“THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND which HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.” (vs. 9)
 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.  But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one.  For who has known the mind of the Lord, that He will instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.  (vs. 14-16)

When you desire to bring order to your life….

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