Hear I Grow Again

..... faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of God. Romans 10:17 

Calm down I spelled 'here' incorrectly because I wanted an ear in it. The society we live in has brain washed us into thinking difficult times are bad, life should be fair, love is getting your own way and peace is the lack of problems. After making that statement I think I am hearing a chorus of choking angels.

Have you read the Bible? I'm not talking about the parts you understand and use to pontificate your great spiritual intellect. I'm talking about reading God's Word to be in relationship with Him. There is no where else I have ever been able to learn what love is or how to love another.  Where does love start? Have you ever noticed how you respond to anyone who loves you? Love is a blessing that started with God first loving us. (1 John 4:19) How does He do that?  Have you looked in a mirror lately? Are you lovable? Well I'm sure you have your moments just like I do but God sees all. Ugg! 

Jesus’ existence didn’t begin with His birth or conception, but pre-existed Creation, as made by Him and for Him. Jesus was both with God and God Himself. The plurality within the Godhead makes it possible for God to be intrinsically a ‘God of Love’.

In Jesus, God took on human nature, so He could die for our sins as a fellow human, taking the penalty we deserve for our sins. In fact, this was planned from Eternity, as the names of the Redeemed were already written in His Book of Life from the foundation of the World.  When Jesus took on humanity, this was an addition to His divine nature, not a subtraction of His divinity. He first loved us.... He died for us..... He shows us the way! So to love others first we have to die?  We can't do that!  Yes, yes we can.  We don't have to die dead.... we're not saving anybody.  We just need to die to our selfish ways so love can live. 

A pearl to string:  It has been said that first Corinthians 13 is the love chapter.  God is love and verses 4 thru 7 are His characteristics: Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and Love keeps no record of being wronged. Love does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. 

Replace the word "Love" with your name. When you read it out load with you name, does what you read have truth?  Reading God's Word is a life long adventure that brings you closer to God's characteristics as your faith in Him grows. 

His eye is always on us

because He loves us with His life

                                                     Lyndi

One Two Three

“It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.”  Lena Horne 

I thinks of the load in one's day as a pile of irritants that I gritch & moan about but a burden is a deep pain in my heart.  Most of us shoulder our burdens alone and share our loads with friends but God intends for us to share our burdens and carry our own loads.  “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”(Galatians 6:2)  In this verse burden in the Greek translates into boulder; a boulder is something that is too heavy for an individual to carry alone. Scripture also says: “ … for each one should carry his own load.” (Galatians 6:5 ) Load in the Greek translates into knapsack; a knapsack is something that each individual is responsible to carry on his own. So, there are boulders and there are knapsacks. We are to help carry one another’s boulders but not one another’s knapsacks. When we carry one another’s knapsacks we get in the way of their maturing process.  

Among the new verbs created out of nouns, “efforting” won't be found in your dictionary but it seems so appropriate here.  It means struggling unnecessarily in an effort to do something. It could be illustrated by pushing a car to your destination when it would be much easier to start the engine and drive it. When I find myself “efforting,” I think of Jesus’ invitation to let Him take the heavy part of the yoke, leaving me the lighter side. He does not necessarily say that He will carry all of my baggage. Yet, He does promise that when we accept His invitation, He will gladly lighten our load.   

 

(Matthew 11:25-30) Abruptly Jesus broke into prayer: “Thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. You’ve concealed your ways from sophisticates and know-it-alls, but spelled them out clearly to ordinary people. Yes, Father, that’s the way you like to work.”  Jesus resumed talking to the people, but now tenderly. “The Father has given me all these things to do and say. This is a unique Father-Son operation, coming out of Father and Son intimacies and knowledge. No one knows the Son the way the Father does, nor the Father the way the Son does. But I’m not keeping it to myself; I’m ready to go over it line by line with anyone willing to listen.  “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”   The Message 

A pearl to string: God gave us the formula in His Word. First, turn to Him, second give up control, and third trust Him and follow.  

First: He said, “Come to Me.” There is no peace outside of Christ. Too many Christians are living with one foot in Christ and one foot in the world. There will be no peace for those who do not come completely to Him. Second: To take up the yoke of Christ is to give up control to Him. The yoke is a symbol of partnership. Christ is right next us, yoked with us to help us with our load. A yoke is also a symbol of guidance. Yoked with Christ, we can only move in His direction and at His pace. But we must give Him first place and give up our control. Third: Giving up control always leads us to trust Him. If we let Christ guide and control us, we trust Him. Without trust, we can not follow.  

In His grace

You are loved,

                   Lyndi

The Law of the Garbage Truck

This is just one of those anonymous stories that has a good word for each one of us. One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport. We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches! The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was really friendly.  So I asked, "Why did you just do that? That guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!"  

This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call, "The Law of the Garbage Truck."  He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage -- frustration, anger, disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they'll dump it on you.  Don't take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on.  Don't take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets.  The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day.  Anger, hatred and resentment that lives within us is destructive and counterproductive.   

A pearl to string: There are many places in life where we get the opportunity to live

the "....forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil" part of the prayer our Lord taught us to pray.  (Matthew 6:9-13)  

“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.” - Martin Luther King Jr. 

Love the people who treat you right.

Pray for the ones who don't.

Because you are loved,

                               Lyndi

Reciprocity

Some years ago in a Bible Study group a lady told me I had the 'gift of reciprocity'.  I like that gift... it's a very cool sounding gift I thought to myself.   As I pondered  the lady's words over and over in my mind in connection to serving the Lord I began to wonder..... what the heck does that mean?  I discovered a very interesting detail in my study. The Ethic of Reciprocity or the Golden Rule is the one maxim, ethical code, or morality that all religions and philosophies have in common with God's Word. (Lev. 19:18, 34, Matt. 7:12, Lu 6:31)  Of course the variation is vast but the meaning is the same. As a green wordsmith I guess I'm not understanding what that lady intended by 'gift of reciprocity'. I don't really want to treat others the way I want to be treated.  I want to treat others the way God treats me.  

I've always been drawn to encouraging wives and mothers. I learned the hard way husbands and children don't come with a set of directions. Too often women find themselves operating in crisis mode.  I found myself in those crisis modes many times in my life.  As a terrified child running from abuse I would crawl into my imaginary cave and close the opening to where I could see out but no one could see me. Even as a grown woman my natural instinct is to hide.  It's just plain safer in my imaginary cave because I'm not alone.  Jesus was always there with me.  Eventually one learns that there's nothing better than a few crisis in one's life to strengthen the soul.  Then one day, I think it happens to everyone in some form, calamity hits your life and no amount of previous experience or coping mechanism will suffice.  You need Jesus and no one else will do. 

Life has road signs: warning signs, regulatory signs, guide and information signs, temporary traffic control signs, school signs, railroad signs and emergency signs.  I even came across a sign that said, "no traffic signs".  Oh that has to be the worst.  How are we suppose to know what to do or where to go?  That is just where I feel called to encourage and share..... not what my life experiences have taught me but what I learned when I gave the pain to Jesus.  Is that the 'gift of reciprocity'? 

A pearl to string: When you feel all alone in the midst of a crisis and no one is coming to rescue you that's where any individual can find the Lord.   When your whining and complaining end. When your screams and curses dry up. When you run out of tears.  When the silence is deafening. That's when you can hear that faint knock, knock, knocking at the door of your heart. Anytime you come to the end of yourself.  His smiling face and open arms welcome you.   

"Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me".  (Revelation 3:20)  Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.  (John 14:23) 

Oh how He loves you and me

                                         Lyndi

OUTSIDE INSIDE OUT

(Mark 7:15 NLT) ^"It’s not what goes into your body that defiles you; you are defiled by what comes from your heart.”

 

We get so hung up on externals, appearances, and facades.  It's not just a matter of taste, or maintenance problem.  Fashionistas, compulsive exercisers, workaholics, social butterflies, sports nuts, extreme dieters, the primal urge to splurge shoppers, or excessive decor revolutionists.  All the over the moon habits are  intense needs for control in our lives and become the breeding ground for perfectionist pathology.  Not everything is beautiful from every view point. Healthy people organize their enjoyable activities around their lives, whereas control-dependents organize their lives round their excessive activities. Horace, the Roman poet, sums it up: "Clogged with yesterday's excess, the body drags the mind down with it".   

"Jesus said to the crowd, 'Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.'"  (Luke 12:15)  "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Luke 12:34)

Hold everything in your hands lightly, otherwise it hurts when the Father has to pry your fingers open!  Corrie Ten Boom

A pearl to string: Jesus cuts to the core of God's concern -- our spiritual heart condition. He wants us to not only focus on what we put in or on our body, but what we allow to grow in our hearts and simmer in our heads. The inner world is what needs our most earnest attention.  

The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart. (1 Samuel 16:7) 

Our weary hearts, our wayward hearts, our broken and fearful hearts - our inner selves need a Savior.  Whatever brings our hearts to Christ brings us near to God. 

Count your blessings and

know you are loved,

                       Lyndi