In fellowship, out of fellowship, in fellowship, out of fellowship...

... this was the popular calls this week, asking about being in fellowship with God. It seems that, as the minister was assuring a caller that our sin does not take out of fellowship with God, several other listeners were getting concerned at the possible error he was giving out. One of the concerned callers called and shared the story of how she accepted Christ at a young age, but as she grew older, she wandered off, doing things that she knew were not good things to do. Now, while she knew she had NOT lost her salvation, she felt that she had lost fellowship with God. She was doing bad things, and totally ignoring God. Couldn't that be out of fellowship? 

Trials and Tribulations

Wow. What a timely message this morning. I cringed when I first saw that the sermon was coming from the book of James. James has always been rather hard on my old ego. I wondered how it would look through the eyes of Grace this morning. There are several verses in there that the Pentecostal background I had would use to prove that one must 'gut it out for God", if they indeed wanted to spend an eternity in heaven. Would today be more of the same?

During our Bible study last week, an interesting verse was revealed.  In I Peter, we're told to be ready to give an answer when someone ASKS us about the difference seen in us.  This was different than what I  was used to growing up.  I remember as a young child, I was encouraged to tell everyone I saw about Jesus. Somehow, and I don't quite recall how, I gathered that I was supposed to MAKE people listen to me when i would tell them about Jesus. Another preacher would laughingly refer to this as running them up the flagpole to get away from us.   Looking back, I suppose we were nothing more than one of those annoying people that we would go a mile out of our way to avoid. 

Don't forget the Cross

What an eye opener. This morning, I finally got a chance to trim up our dying wisteria bush in the front yard. It was bittersweet, really.   Every spring, whoever passed by could breathe in the fragrant blossoms that were just dripping all over this magnificent bush like clusters of bright purple grapes.  I never ceased to enjoy its beauty whenever I would walk by, and others have commented the same.

7th Day....of which calendar?

Man--listening to a favorite archive of mine, it seemed that the flavor of the show was the seventh day Sabbath. One guy mentioned that whenever someone keeps the Sabbath, people automatically think that person is a Seventh Day Adventist. I didn't know until tonight that there were Seventh Day Baptists. Not having heard of it, I decided to browse through the Internet for a few minutes and see what I could find.

Forgiveness for Others

Wow. What a relief. No, seriously, I mean a REAL relief. A fella called the ministry this afternoon, asking about forgiveness. The question was, if we don't forgive other people, then we'll lose our salvation. Was this true?

Before Bob answered the question, he felt he needed to bring to light the difference between the Old Covenant and New Covenant. In the Old Covenant, Jesus taught folks to pray "Forgive us, as we forgive others" Yikes! I have a list of names I'm still working on forgiveness for.  So, if I don't forgive them, God's not forgiven me?

Wow. What a revelation. This weekend, I learned that yes, we CAN survive without the internet.  Have you ever wished you could tear yourself away from the internet, but feel powerless to do so? Too many times it's just simply convenient to "do everything' from your computer. This past weekend, Saturday morning, to be exact, a thunderstorm took out our modem. Neither my teenage boys or me were too upset. We were getting the much needed rain for our yards, crops and wildfires, so we weren't at all upset that the internet was gone. In fact, I would go so far as to say I felt an emotion I'd not felt in a long time.

Oh yeah... Summer is here..

Nothing says summer quite like my Daddy's garden. Now add to it, my  uncle's garden and brother's garden.  This week we dined on the first fruits of Daddy's zucchini and yellow squash, as well as Uncle Freddy's tomatoes. Sure, you can get most of these same veggies year around in the local grocery, but there's so much more flavor in the home grown vegetables than in their store bought counterparts.  I suspect several of you know what I'm talking about. You bite into a big red-ripe juicy tomato from the store and it has all the appeal of eating cardboard. No amount of salt and pepper will help. Show of hands for anyone having had that same experience? Let me raise my hand several times on this.   Contrast that with a home grown tomato... fresh dirt... real cow fertilizer, and hydration from the underground spring.  Oh yeah.... you know what that flavor. You mouth comes alive when you bite into that tomato from the garden. Didn't realize tomatoes were supposed to taste like that, did you? To be honest, I was completely satisfied with the ho-humness of the grocery store tomatoes until I tasted the real thing from Daddy's garden. I didn't know vegetables could BE so good. I've eaten so much zucchini and yellow squash, I think I might've hurt myself.

Hello, I am a Christian, and I suffer from Martha-itus

Well? What can I say? It's just hit me square in the face that I suffer from Martha-itus. You remember that story, don't you? Where Jesus came to visit His friends Mary, Martha and perhaps Lazarus. Mary sat at Jesus' feet, while Martha scurried around trying to get things done for that crowd of people.
After a bit, Martha started complaining that she was doing all the work, and at the very least, Jesus could make Mary help. Of course, Jesus told her no, that Mary chose the better thing and it would NOT be taken from her.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Out of the Mouths of Babes. As I read one of my favorite comics from my morning rituals, I grimaced at how accurate little Billy's statement was. When we leave our fellowship on the weekends, be it Saturday or Sundays, often times it's as if God lives there--within those four wall, instead of within our hearts 24/7.  We go to our preferred church, carry out the weekly rituals of opening with Prayer, singing a few songs, maybe passing around the collection plate, listen to a sermon, have an altar call, close in prayer, and shake hands on our way out the door. 

Mic Burger of love

What a refreshing sermon this past Sunday. Talked about loving others, not just in words, but in action. We're told in the scriptures that the only thing that counts is faith, expressing itself through love. (Galatians 5:6). The word "expressing" is a verb... it shows action. Too many times, I've been guilty of murmuring a few words of sympathy, then moving on, because I simply couldn't be bothered. To keep someone in prayer, is a fine thing, but will that really help the person get his or her needs met? I loved this sermon, because it brought up several instances to remembrance. These incidences reminded me that I didn't have 'conjure' up good works... but rather that the love of God that lives within me will stir up my desires to help this one or that one.

Lost my marbles?

Pulling the keys out of my pocket, I sighed as the entire contents of my pocket spilled onto the sidewalk. My pockets were a treasure chest of sorts, with different confiscated toys from the day's off task students. Locking the door to my classroom, I gathered up most of the contents, missing only a few. "Looking for something?" My teacher buddy asks, noticing me searching the grounds as she's coming up the sidewalk. "Well..." I sighed, "It's official. I have lost my marbles" She cracked up. "Stop it!" she cackled. Honestly, though, I HAD lost my marbles. Those were the elusive treasure I couldn't find. A few minutes of searching finally located the marbles, gleaming in the bright afternoon sunshine. Gathering them back up, we said our goodbyes and left for the day.

The sound of silence

Life was going as usual. The cafeteria was full of students eating and calling out to each other. Suddenly, a favorite colleage came sliding up to me, grinning. "Did you notice our world falling in around us?" he asked, chuckling. My blank look prompted him to continue. "All of our cell phones are down, all of our Internet is down, as well as the landlines," this course meant that the ATM's were down, the gas pumps were down, as well as the grocery store. The funny thing was, I felt a sense of relief. For a small rift in time, I was totally unaccessible to the outside world. The younger generation wasnt sure of how to communicate without their tech.

Warning! Whine session ahead

May I have some cheese to go with my whine?

Dear God,
I know you have seen, and are seeing, everything going on inside my heart and head this morning. You also know that my heart is in an angry turmoil about everything.  Lord, I'm not You. I can't walk in love 24/7, and it's getting to where I can't even walk in love at all. I find it odd that I can have patience with the world, because after all, "they" are acting like who "they" are--children of satan. People who have, for whatever stupid reason they can conjure up, have decided to reject You, Your love, and Your salvation. So of course they would act the way they're acting.

Misplaced focus?

"it's time for the sleeping giant to awaken (the church). It's time to wake up, step up and speak up, or lose everything" was the message silently being heralded on a busy intersection in town.