We’re going to be there

May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by His grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word. 2Thessalonians 2:16

Sometimes it seems as though the wicked of this world are winning. We see things going on and wonder why God allows them to happen. It is during those times we should realize the depth of God’s love and rest in His grace. When evil abounds, we can be encouraged because we know time will end for those who do evil and are not of God’s family, while we will go on eternally.

I’m often discouraged by what is going on around me, but as I grow closer to God, I realize how futile the efforts, and how fleeting the success of those who don’t know God are. Their power and their possessions will cease one day, but our encouragement and hope will never fade.

We should focus on God’s love and accept His grace each and every day. When we do that, He will fill our hearts with His love, and we will become like Him. That should be our hope and our goal’ to be more like Jesus; to be strengthened by His love so we might do every good deed and speak every good word, spreading eternal encouragement and hope to those around us.

Eternity will right the wrongs of this earth.

And let the Son shine!

But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. James 3:17

When we love God, we will receive the knowledge He reveals to us and we will not be deceived. The truth from God is powerful because it comes from heaven, straight from God, the source of all that is good. God’s wisdom is pure, and it contains no artificial ingredients to make it look better or feel better than it really is. It’s the real thing—not tampered with and never diluted.

When we open our hearts to His wisdom, He reveals His truths to us and gives us understanding of what once was confusing. When the wisdom of God begins to push aside all earthly wisdom, we begin to display traits which demonstrate to the world we are His children. We begin to be less contentious and more peace-loving, less selfish and more considerate, less demanding and more submissive to the needs of others, less critical and more merciful, less biased and more impartial, and less falsely tolerant and more sincere.

All those things come from heaven and God. The wisdom God gives us is not wisdom we can absorb through books and sermons; it is the pure wisdom God pours into our hearts because He loves us.

Open your heart and be filled with God’s wisdom.

And that’s the truth!

They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 2Thessalonians 2:10

The truth seems to be less and less important as time goes by. It seems as though society as a whole has decided it’s easier to be untruthful, because all it takes to cover a lie is another lie. The problem with this way of doing things is eventually the lies will expose the truth. The truth being it’s all a lie.

When we speak only things which are true, we need not ever worry about having to justify or support them. The truth will indeed set us free, because it will show itself to be fact.

Remember the old saying, Oh, what a wicked web we weave, when first we practice to deceive. One lie leads to another, and as a spider web can be destroyed with one swipe of the hand, one simple statement of truth can cause a mountain of lies to crumble.

Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. This is the ultimate truth, and when we focus on Him—the truth—God will write His laws upon our minds and hearts. I’m pretty sure one of those laws says, you shall not bear false witness. And that’s the truth!

And, how’d it get there?

After those days,” says the Lord; “I will put my laws into their mind, I will also write them on their heart. I will be to them a God, And they will be to me a people. Hebrews 8:10

There are two very important words in this verse, and they appear three times; I will. That’s I, as in God, not I, as in me or you. Those two words are the foundation of the new covenant—the covenant of grace. Grace is a gift, and the simple definition of grace is we no longer have to struggle to remember and obey God’s laws, make amends for our sins, or struggle to live a godly, moral life.

I’ve always had an aversion to memorizing things, and for that matter, remembering things. If I want to remember something, I write myself a note. (Then I have to remember where I put the note. DOH!) Seriously though, I don’t waste my time trying to remember a lot of things.

This works out well with me and God, because He puts the things in my heart and mind that are important. And, the more I focus on Him, and the more I understand his awesome love for me, the easier it becomes to live a life that is pleasing to Him.

God wants to bless us with all good things, and all we have to do is… let Him.

If you’ve got time

So your barns will be filled with plenty, And your vats will overflow with new wine. Proverbs 3:10

I know it’s not true for everyone, but in this country, most of us have plenty—of everything. We have so much we take for granted, things that those in times past had to struggle to attain. And yet, we often complain.

I’m not exempt; I too often catch myself grumbling when some little something doesn’t go exactly the way I planned it. The reality of my life—should I closely examine it—is I have to look for something to complain about.

My refrigerator and pantry is always full of good things to eat; my house is too big for two people, and it’s always warm or cool, whichever I happen to desire. My vehicles are always full of gas, and I can hop into either one and go just about anywhere I want to go.

In fact, I could probably write all day, telling you about the blessings God continues to pour out on me. If I were to make a list of the good things, and a list of the bad things, I could fill pages and pages with the good, and probably only a small portion of a page with the bad. The fact is, if I counted all my blessings every day, I wouldn’t have time to do anything else.

Count your blessings! (If you have time.)

You’re going the right direction

The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”  Luke 10:17

Jesus had sent the seventy-two men out to do God’s work. When they reported back to Him, they were excited and joyful at all they had been able to accomplish. They were apparently amazed at what they were able to do. “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” Jesus answers them, saying they should not rejoice over what they have done, but they should rejoice because their names are written in Heaven.

This goes along with what I was saying yesterday; if we spend too much time looking back and marveling at what we’ve done, we’ll lose sight of where we are going. Our rewards are not on this earth or of this world for what we accomplish here. The things of this world are temporary and of very little value. Heaven awaits us, and is before us, not behind us. It doesn’t matter where we’ve been, it only matters where we are going.

God has a plan and you have a part in it. My part in His plan is to encourage you (and me) to look to Him and move forward. Don’t look back. Move forward every day, even if it’s only a step or two. As long as you’re moving toward God, you’re heading in the right direction.

We’d been coming to this spot since we were ten, the year I moved to Elkin and found her waiting in the yard in front of our new house. She’d been sitting beside her Schwinn bicycle—it had the little bell and wire basket on the handle bar, and she still rides it. As soon as I got out of our car, she jumped up, rang the little bell, performed a little rah-rah cheer welcoming us to the neighborhood, then ran to me and looked up at me with the biggest brown eyes I’d ever seen. “I hope you like lemon bars!” she said.

Dumbfounded, thoroughly embarrassed by her greeting, and speaking long before my brain was engaged, I said something any ten-year old boy might say after watching such a performance; “Who let you out of your cage?”

That was six years ago, and we’d been best friends ever since. I loved Marney, but would never admit it. She on the other hand, professed—on a daily basis—to loving me with every fiber of her being. She said I was her destiny. I told her that was a darn shame.

“What did you say?” I asked, raising my hand to shield the sun.

“Which part?” she asked. “You haven’t heard a thing I’ve said for the last fifteen minutes. I thought you were asleep.” With my hand shielding my eyes, her halo was gone, and her face shadowed. I couldn’t see the tears trickling down her cheeks.

“The part about being homesick.”

She swiped at her cheeks with both hands. “I said I can’t do this anymore. I can’t go on loving you when you won’t love me back. It’s like feeling homesick for a place that doesn’t even exist.”

I frowned, then lowered my head to the blanket we’d placed on the forest floor, and closed my eyes. I saw pink bicycles, wire baskets, a little girl dancing on a lawn, and heard the ching-a-ling of a tiny bell. The thought came floating toward me like sunlight over the trees at the Johnson creek bridge; I love lemon bars. But, I’d never told her. Instead, I’d made a smart remark—something a ten-year-old boy would say—and I’d kept making them for six years. I smiled, opened my eyes, sat up, and said, “I love you, Marney Wilson.”

The forest was empty and the sun was going down.

Copyright © 2013 C Mashburn

Sharing this on Kellie Elmore’s Free Write Friday.

It’s better than where you’ve been!

Jesus replied, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”  Luke 9:62

When we decide to make loving God our first priority, He will probably fit us into His plan and put us to work. And when He does, we can’t look back to see the things—our former way of life—we left behind, and we can’t look back to see what we’ve accomplished once we’ve begun to do God’s will. There can be no regrets, and we leave the results of our work to Him.

When driving through farm country, you might notice the rows are very much in line with one another. In most cases, they are straight, but even if they have curves, they are exactly the same in their curvature. My point is if the person running the plow looks back often, he might veer off course. If he looks back too often the rows will lose their symmetry, and this will result in some undesired results throughout the growing process.

If we accept the call to do what God has for us to do, we need to commit and get on with it. If we keep looking back, we’ll just make a mess out of things. But just a little comment here, there’s a real good chance you won’t have any desire to look back!

Unworthy

Wishing

   to soothe the soul

     I gaze longingly at

        the good

Leaving

   the painful past

     where it lies

Wondering

    how is it I escaped

Mourning

     the loss of so many young lives

Too soon

    they chose to stop.

Unable

    or unwilling it seems

       to go on

Leaving

    insatiable demands

Believing

    their efforts unworthy

       of wages offered… but never paid

Hearing

    only the insults and lies

Seeing

    no reason to live

       this slow death

          called life

Were they

Was I

    so alone

       so very much alone

      so completely unheard

         that it was no longer worth

… anything

Copyright © 2013 C Mashburn

Writing and sharing this today in response to Anna’s prompt at dVerse Poets Pub. She has asked that we write a poem utilizing volition and velleity (my spellcheck doesn’t even recognize that one) for the “Meeting the Bar:” feature. As is typical, Miss Anna is so far over my head I find myself staring at her toenails, blinking and wondering what, exactly, she just said. But I think I got close with the above effort.

Is what you focus on most

Like a scarecrow in a melon patch, their idols cannot speak; they must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them; they can do no harm nor can they do any good. Jeremiah 10:5

We can place a scarecrow in our garden, and it will scare away the birds, but the key is we must place it in the garden. It can do nothing unless we do our part first.

An idol is anything—an inanimate object, another person, possessions, money, even our own self—we care more about than we care about God. If anything is more important to you than God, it can be considered an idol. Sadly, none of those things—nothing—can do us any real good. But the good news is they can’t harm us either unless we put them ahead of God.

God is an awesome God who loves us and wants only the best for us. Idols of any kind are merely things that get between us and God. No matter how powerful they may seem, don’t be afraid to put them in their place. As long as God is your focus in life, nothing can harm you!