Think on these things

Philippians 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.

Does anyone else find this incredibly difficult.  I mean I know what I am supposed to think, meditate, on but it seems like everything in our world is trying to keep us thinking about other things.  

I mean let's look at it, "true",  how do you focus on truth when it seems that you cannot count on anyone to give you the truth.  You look at anything on the Internet, newspapers, news stations it seems like everything is slanted one way or another to get you to buy into their truth.  There doesn't seem to be any absolute truth anymore.  Even within the church, what is true for one church is not necessarily true for another.  

Whatever things are noble, honorable from the root word meaning to revere, religious.  Is there any honor anymore?  It doesn't seem that people value nobility or honor anymore, for true nobility is having an excellent moral character and morality seems to be a thing of the past.  

Whatever things are just.  Justice is something we cry out for when it comes to others, but not so much for ourselves.  Just, is more and more subjective, we say things like "he was just in doing that". "I am justified in my actions".  Without moral absolute every action can be justified by the individual who chooses it.

Whatever things are pure.  Purity, really?  It seems to be a gag for the tabloids.  Even if you try to be pure or think on things that are pure you just have to wake up in the morning and the world is bombarding you with everything but purity.  From TV, Movies, commercials, radio, internet, all around us.  Even opening your email can be a land mine of negotiating through spam emails trying to seduce you into every  impure act known to man.  Drive by your local junior or senior high school and you will what our kids, especially our sons are up against.  Girls fully developed wearing short shorts or skirts, low cut tops, leaving nothing to the imagination.  I am amazed that parents allow their daughters to dress like this.  Even if boys wanted to think on what is pure, it is nearly impossible.
Whatever things are lovely.  These are the things that one has an affection towards.  So the things that you like.  The things that you think about, are the things that you are friendly towards, the things you like, so ask yourself, what is it that dominates my thinking?  What is on my mind when I wake up?  When I fall asleep?
Whatever things are of good report.  What things have a good reputation, well spoken of.  Are you looking for the good to focus on, or are you focused on the bad.  When you mind is continually focused on the bad, whether it is personally in your own life, or in society or in the world, it will have an affect on you and what you do.  God knows there is a lot of horrible things going on in the world, and I don't believe that he is saying that we are not to be aware of that what is happening, but the question is what are you focused on?  Try focusing on things that are of good report and see if that doesn't change your attitude and your behavior.
If there is any virtue?   Virtue comes from the same root word as manliness.  A man of valor, excellence.  Is there any virtue?  Do we see men or women that are worthy of praise?  Men and women of valor, courage, bravery?  I think we do, those are the stories we need to hear more about.  Yes there are plenty of people that make the news for messing up, but what about having more news about those that step up to the plate, put their lives on the line, the true unsung heroes of our time?
The next goes along with the above, if there is anything praiseworthy, mediate on these things. 
How would our lives change if we started putting this verse into practice each and every day.  If we got rid of the idea that "sex sells"  and replaced it with "valor sells"  "nobility sells".  Turned off the violent TV shows, games, stayed away from movies that didn't uplift.  Remember this only pertains to Christians, although I believe everyone would benefit from doing this. 
But my challenge is to Christians, examine this week what you are watching, listening too, reading and run everything the filter of Philippians 4:8, and see what may need some changing.  I believe for too long we have slowly allowed the enemy to take control of our minds.  I know when I am conscientiously aware I am amazed by the oh so subtle and subtle ways the enemy uses to take me away from who God made me to be.  If you take this challenge, please let me know, what if any changes God challenges you to make in your life.  I would love to pray for you and with you.  God Bless

  

Sanctify Yourselves

How do you fall asleep at night?  What is your routine?  Do you read a book, watch TV, pray talk to your spouse, shower?  We all have them, the routines that we do without thinking each and every night before we close our eyes and go to sleep.  Routines are sometimes started very early in life, think about the routines to put your child to bed, is it a bedtime story, saying their prayers, kisses all around, that last glass of water, whatever it is routines are part of our lives. 

What if we started a new bedtime routine?  What if this new routine was able to totally transform your life?  In the book of Joshua the children of Isreal are told the following:

Joshua 3:5 Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow The Lord will do wonders among you.  

Wow, sanctify yourselves, now that is a radical idea for a bedtime routine.  Now sanctify yourself means to make yourself clean, dedicate yourself, prepare yourself.

Think about it, what if instead of catching up on the latest news or sports scores before bed you cleansed your mind of worldly things to focus on Godly matters?  What if you spent the last few moments before falling to sleep meditating on the Word of God?  Spent time in prayer thanking God for the day you just had but also anticipating all that God was going to do tomorrow?  Remember the verse says Sanctify yourself for tomorrow The Lord will do wonders among you.  

Do you ever stop and think, "I wonder what The Lord has in store for tomorrow?  Look at all the miraculous things He did for me today, tonight I wait in anticipation with what tomorrow will bring."

How would our lives be changed, what could tomorrow bring, if each night before we went to bed, we sanctified ourselves in anticipation of what God would do tomorrow? 

Why not give it a try, join me for the next 21 days in going to bed every night by sanctifying ourselves in anticipation of what wonders God is going to do.  

Please let me know if you are in, and share what God does in the next 21 days in your life.

Two Lessons from the Book of Samuel

I have been reading about Samuel in the Bible. In case you don't know the story of Samuel, let me give you a little background into his life. You will find the story of Samuel in the book of First Samuel. Starting in chapter one we learn that Samuel's father is Elkanah. Elkanah has two wives, one is Peninnah and Hannah. Now Peninnah had children, but Hannah did not have any children. Hannah cried out to The Lord, and The Lord blessed her with a son, Samuel. Amazingly, on Hannah's part, she promised God that if He would bless her with a child, she would give the child back to God. So that is exactly what Hannah did, after Samuel was weaned, Hannah took Samuel to the temple and gave him to God. So that is where we find Samuel, growing up in the Temple, serving God.

So now two lessons I learned from Samuel:

The first is we ought to listen to God's voice rather than man's. When we have a question, problem, decision shouldn't the first thing we do be pray? Before reading a book, asking someone else, pray, not that God won't use some of these things, but we need to personally be praying and learning to listen to the voice of God. Much like Samuel had to learn, when his first inclination was to go to Eli, he had to learn to just be still and listen to the voice of God.
You see one night when Samuel was sleeping he heard someone call out his name and Samuel ran to Eli, the Priest to see what he wanted. The problem was,Eli did not call Samuel and told Samuel to go back to sleep. Again the same thing happened and again Eli tells Samuel to go back and lie down. The third time that it happened, Eli realized that it must be The Lord calling Samuel (why it took Eli, a Priest, so long to figure out is a story for another time), but now Eli tells Samuel to go back and lie down and when he is called again say, "Speak Lord for your servant hears". So when Samuel heard the voice of The Lord he had to learn to listen. We too need to learn to listen to God. God is still speaking, are we listening?

Second lesson:
Growing up in a church is not a guarantee that one knows or will obey The Lord. As we know Samuel grew up in the temple, now I'm don't just mean that he went to church every week, but he actually grew up there and served in the Temple. Eli also had two sons that also grew up serving in the temple, but growing up in the Temple did not guarantee what kind of men they would grow up to be, each had to decide for himself if he would follow God.
Now when Samuel first heard the call of God, we are told "now Samuel did not know The Lord, nor had the word of The Lord yet been revealed to him". Interesting for someone raised in the church, but being raised in the church is not a guarantee of a relationship with God, that came by being obedient to te call of The Lord. Samuel was obedient to God's calling and we are told that Samuel grew, and The Lord was with him.
However we are told that Eli's sons were evil. So evil that it was told to Eli that his sons would both die in the same day and that God would find another priest who would faithfully serve God in the Temple.
So you see, although raising your children up in the church is a good thing, there will come a time when they will have to choose for themselves to be obedient to the voice of God.

First day down, now on to day two

Well I would love to say that yesterday was perfect and great and everything went as planned, that's what I would like to say, but if I am going to do this, I am going to have to be honest both with myself and with you, so no yesterday was not perfect. There were some really good parts and small victories that I will embrace and then other parts that I need to learn from and move past in order to reach my goals.
First, the morning was great, got up did my run, well actually it is a run/walk at this point. I am running 3 minutes, walking for 2. So that went well, loved every minute of it, then came back had my protein shake and made my juice to take with me.
So far, so good. Then we took the car in to have it looked at because it is leaking and smelling. So what to do while the car is in the shop, my husband and I walked to McDonalds, not to eat but because they have Wifi. The walk was nice about a mile walk, so more exercise was great. Got to McDonalds and was working on my IPad, drinking my water and juice, not too bad. Oh just as a side note, when you start increasing your water intake, make sure there is always a bathroom near by. Got a little hungry and ordered one of their parfaits, fairly healthy. Then the car still was not done and I'm hungry, so I broke down and ordered a small French fry. I know, I know not good.
But we did walk back to the repair place so maybe I walked it off.
Now we have a couple of errands to run, oh by the way the car never got looked at they got backed up at the repair place so we have to take it back another day.
Anyway, we decided to go to get something to eat and ended up at a Cajun place where I had a catfish sandwich with more fries. What can I say, I was hungry.
So if I am going to be gone all day I need to plan better with snacks. But hey, it was the first day. Today is a new day, I love that each day we can leave the past behind and start anew. I will let you know how today goes tomorrow. Wish me luck.

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I will never forget the Fall of 1977

It was October 1977, I was a Senior in High School, I was on the Drill Team, had lots of friends, life was good.  I remember the night my niece was born, it was our homecoming game and I was excited for the game and for the Drill Team Half Time Show.  We got the call that my sister in law was in labor, so I was going to stop by the Hospital quickly on my way to the game.  I got there just after she had my niece and they were taking them to the recovery room.  I got a quick glance of my niece and off they went and off I went to the game.  To me everything seemed great, what I didn't know was that not everything was ok, you see my niece's skin color had a bluish tint.  Something was wrong.
The next night instead of going to my Homecoming Dance, my date and I babysat my nephew while everyone went to the hospital for my niece's first open heart surgery.
The doctors did what they could to try and repair my niece's heart, but there is only so much they could do.  She had to stay in the hospital.  She was in the hospital through Halloween, through Thanksgiving and then sometime in the beginning of December the doctors took my niece into the operating room again.  This time however, they discovered that there was nothing they could do, the doctors couldn't fix her and they sewed her back up.
The doctors came to my brother and sister in law and told them, my niece would be dead by Christmas.  They left my brother and sister in law with no hope of ever taking their daughter home.  After much consideration, my brother and sister in law decided to go ahead and have the doctors inject my niece with a drug that would stop her heartbeat and let het die.  How could they do this, we'll they had never brought my niece home, she was not a viable human being, and since they were told that she would be dead by Christmas, why wait, what an inconvenience to have to have a funeral so close to Christmas?
Does this shock your conscience, are you appalled by their actions?  Do you think that this was murder?  Are you shouting at the computer right now, "what if the doctor is wrong?"
Well I hope that this does shock you, but you see these are some of the excuses that are given by mothers wanting to abort their babies.  Even by people who believe abortion is wrong, will make the exception if the doctor has said that the baby won't make, or won't have any kind of quality of life.  Then there is the inconvenience of having a baby right now would be.  "I want to finish school", "We can't afford a baby right now", "I'm getting my career started", etc. etc.  But no matter what the reason a baby even one in the womb will be dead.
I write this, because I want you to think next time you are defending your stance on abortion.
Back to my niece, yes the doctors did tell us that she would not live til Christmas, but no the idea of killing her was never discussed and I am happy to say she is now 35 years old.  So even if the doctors tell you that a baby will not make, they can be wrong.  There are many stories, where a mother was told to abort a baby, only to have the baby to be born healthy.  
God Bless

By the way it's not going to work

What would you say if you went to the doctor because you were sick, he told you what to do to take of yourself and then said oh and by the way it's not going to work?  Or let's say you just came home with a new piece of furniture, you get the instructions out, start following the instructions and then get to the end and read "by the way it's not going to work"?  Would you be mad, think somebody must have lost their minds, throw your hands up and ask why bother if it's not going to work.
Well that is essentially what we find as we read the story of Moses in the Bible.  First Moses has started over with his new life in the dessert, has a wife, place to life, things are going ok for Moses.  Then he encounters a burning bush, no big deal except the fire is not consuming the bush and the  Moses hears the voice of God, coming out of the bush.  So that in and of itself, may have freaked me out a bit, but then God tells Moses to go back to Egypt to speak to Pharaoh and to tell Pharaoh to let God's people go.  Well Moses first tries to argue with God, telling God that he doesn't speak we'll, wouldn't know what to say etc.  after God tells Moses that his brother can go with him, Moses agrees.  God then tells him, go to Pharaoh perform a couple of miracles, so he knows you are sent by God and tell Pharaoh to let God's people go.  Then God tells Moses do all these things that I tell you to do and "oh by the way, it's not going to work".  Not only is Pharaoh not to let my people go, God says I'm going to harden his heart.
Wow, really God, you want me to go to the most powerful man in the known world, knowing full well that I have problems speaking as it is and then you are going to make sure that Pharaoh doesn't listen to me?
What would you have done?  Would it have been easier or harder if God had not told Moses the outcome a head of time?
Think about your own life, did you get married thinking it was going to be happy ever after, you did everything you knew to do, followed Proverbs 31 to a tee, only to have your husband leave you for another woman?  Did you pray and pray to have a child, went to the doctors, did everything you were told to do only still couldn't get pregnant?  Maybe you worked hard on your job, did you job as unto The Lord only to be fired after 25 years?
So what went wrong, why didn't things work out the way would expect them to?  Did we miss something?  Did we do something wrong?  I think that is the reason we have the story of Moses in the Bible, yes we can do everything that God tells us to do, and things still don't go according to plan, but this does not catch God off guard.  He knows the beginning from the end and he has a perfect plan.
Let's go back to Moses for you see eventually after a few plagues and the death of the first born sons of the Egyptians, Pharaoh does finally let the people go, so why did it have to be so hard?  I think part of the reasons it needed to be hard was to help build the faith of God's people.  You see as you read through the Bible, you will find reference after reference of the people of God being reminded to remember how God brought them out of Egypt.  If Pharaoh would have let the people go after the first time he was asked, there wouldn't be a whole lot to remember, also there may have been the tendency to say that Moses was the one who got Pharaoh to let them go.  But this way, there would be no doubt that is was God that did a miracle and the people were let go.  Now that's something to remember, something that faith can be built on.
So what about us, yes we may think that there is an easier way to do something, and why doesn't God just answer right a way, but maybe, just maybe God is doing something greater in your life, something you will be able to share with your kids and grandkids about how God did a miracle in your life.
I pray that this will cause you to praise God in the midst, while waiting for his full blessings to be poured out on you.