Sonshine

This morning as I sat on the couch with my usual cup of coffee in my usual spot and thought about what I had to do today, suddenly the rising sun shone in my face and I closed my eyes to enjoy its rays. There is something about the sun that can lift your spirits and fill your heart with gladness. My thoughts turned in anticipation, "What would God do today?"

Every day you can see him working in big ways and small ways if you’ll just take the time to enjoy simple things. My thoughts turned again, "What does a person really need to have a fulfilling life? Money? Job? Success? What is the definition of success?" You can have a great job and be living the American dream and have a “successful” life on the outside and be totally unfulfilled on the inside.

Recently, my hubby and I have been doing some soul searching. What is it in life that we are most passionate about? We have asked ourselves this question and the answer was not about where we live or what we do or what we have, but about lives in need of Christ. This answer came not from us but from the passionate heart of God within us.

The rays of his love have begun to penetrate our lives changing our viewpoint. What is it we want to accomplish with these lives we’ve been given before its time to go home? We have begun to crave those God appointed meetings that happen throughout the day when he gives us a chance to open our hearts wide and share the love of Jesus with others.

For me, it isn’t all the time that I'm looking for these encounters though, I'm still human and sometimes my flesh takes over and distracts me but I’m realizing more and more that this is a process, a work lovingly being done in me by the tender hands of my Father. Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

He is the one who does the work for his glory in us and through us. Just as we cannot make the sun to shine, so we cannot do the work that only the Father can do. But when he flows through us touching the hearts of others as only he can, it warms our souls and brings encouragement to all like the sun shining on our faces after days of grey gloom.

Never forget that it is the work of His Spirit that accomplishes lasting good in our lives; we are totally dependent upon him. I am encouraged today to lift my face to the SON and let the rays of his love fill my heart and prepare me for what he has in store. I am confindent that no matter what it initially looks like, his golden goodness will be woven all through it.

What an amazing journey we’re on…the road to knowing him, lit by his forever shining love.

Redo You!

Paint, paint, and paint some more! Getting your house ready to sell is a lot of hard work! Not that I’m complaining, I actually love to take a tired looking space and give it new life. I must confess that I am an HGTV junkie. Remodeling gets my juices flowing.

I was reading in 2 Corinthians last night during our family bible time about how God loves to do the same thing. He is the God of restoration! He is the God of reconciliation! He loves it when people come to him and allow him to “redecorate” their lives. :)

He can take the vilest of person and completely transform their life. It even seems that the worse they are the better God likes it because his grace is displayed in bigger more obvious ways. One shouldn’t think that their life is too far gone to receive Jesus as their Savior because of this very fact!

This kind of thinking is a tactic that the enemy uses to keep people from coming to God, but if we were to look closely at the people that Jesus hung with while here on earth we would find that they were the ones that society would consider outcasts….prostitutes, tax collectors, fishermen, and people who had been plagued with disease and demons.

2 Corinthians 5:17-21 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

So let’s break it down…If we receive Christ as our Savior we are changed into someone completely new and all the old goes. We come to God through Christ Jesus and only through Christ Jesus. We come to God only because he really wants us to be with him and so much so that he doesn’t count our sins against us!

So no matter how bad you may be, if you are reading this today and you don’t know Christ there is hope! God is saying to you, “Come, accept my perfect way through my perfect sacrifice (Jesus) and I will forget all the bad you’ve ever done; I won’t hold it against you.”

Then he gives us a ministry….to help others come to him. This ministry is given to everyone who has received him as Savior not just the preacher! He makes us his personal ambassador to speak his message of reconciliation through us to others in need.

I will echo the words of the Apostle in my own words as I plead with you today, don’t let the lies of the enemy stand in your way and come to God and be made new. If you are sick and tired of the way your life is going and your old ways of doing things have not been working so well for you……try something new!! Ask Jesus to come into your heart and be Lord of your life today. Acknowledge to him that you are full of sin and you need his help and peace will flood your life like never before! I know because he did it for me and he will do it for you.

It’s time to do some remodeling of the soul….

Nature Speaks...Glory to God!

Picture is stock from microsoft

This morning the sun was lifted in the sky and its beams cut through the mist and fog. Every day this drama unfolds and we as a human race are graciously given one more day to come to him. It doesn’t matter what language we speak, the sky, sun, moon, and stars with all of nature speaks universally. Every twenty- four hours we behold the beauty and majesty of our Lord.

Psalm 19: 1-6 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.

Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is hidden from its heat.”

If you’ve ever just taken time to sit quietly and listen to nature you will hear what this scripture is proclaiming. Nature is used by its creator to fill us with peace and a unique awareness of his presence. This scripture says that everyone can hear it, regardless of whether they recognize it as the glory of God or not.

All day and all night God reaches out to us through his creation hoping that men will seek him. Psalm 121 says this about God in verses 5-8, “The Lord watches over you—the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from harm—he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.”

What wonderful comfort it is to me this morning that God will be watching over and protecting our family. We have some “coming and going” to do and it’s good to know he will keep us from harm. I was blessed by these words today and I hope you were as well. If we are right with the Lord, his eye on us is a comfort, if we are still at enmity with him, his watching us may be a bit unnerving.

Let his kindness draw you today and take time with him. Stop for just a minute and look around at his glory displayed in nature and give him the praise due to his Holy Name! Make things right with him as you bask in his glorious presence and you will receive comfort for your soul.