INDEPENDENCE DAY

I thought what does independence and freedom really mean? 

You can’t discuss the topic without discussing the costs associated with them.
 

In 1776 when the settlers of the new world decided to fight rather than be governed by England, they understood the cost and gladly paid the price.

In a report I read the U.S. Defense budget at the end of 2009 was $680 million to keep us secure globally.  In 2010 there was approximately $55 million budgeted for homeland security to keep our local borders secure.

The average American has some sort of security system and that cost can vary, but we pay it to keep our possessions secure.  We pay these costs as a consumer, country, or world citizen because security ensures freedom and independence within a set boundary.

 

When you think about mankind before Christ and His work on Calvary, this was our state; our souls were in bondage.

    

Just as the Department of Defense no doubt did a risk analysis when determining if that $650 million was feasible, I’m grateful that Jesus was willing to pay the price to provide a way of independence for mankind by the shedding of His blood.

I am grateful to be an American and enjoy the freedom and independence of this land, but I’m most proud to be a Christian. Christ secured my independence at Calvary.

    

It’s good to be in the land of the free and home of the brave but better to be called one of the saved, the redeemed. 

Are you truly free?  You too can enjoy true freedom and independence by surrendering to Christ.

THE CLOTHES I WEAR

Who would think that God would be concerned with the clothes that I wear?  I drastically changed my style of clothes, under His guidance, before becoming a Christian in 1983.  Now here we are some 30 years later, and God is still very much concerned about what I wear.    

The things I’ve been wearing lately don’t quite fit anymore.  If you’ve ever had clothes that were too big, you know it’s a lot of work.  While trying to determine an outfit to wear, I heard God speak to my heart saying, take off the grave clothes.   I thought maybe I was wearing clothes that made it seem as if I had lost my zest for life or as if I was in mourning.  I recognized that some of the spiritual clothes I had been wearing weren’t carrying the right spirit. 

Mourning or heaviness is not limited to the loss of a loved one.  It could be the loss of a job, a marriage, or some loss that alters your future with a crippling capability.  I began to see the emotional garments I’d been wearing and could feel my shoulders begin to slump.  I felt the weight of the heaviness in my heart, the pain of loss, the sorrow I carried around my neck like a yolk on an oxen and the grief I bore on my chest like a breastplate, and the weight of loneliness I felt as a saddle on my back. 

The bible speaks of several different types of garments; one was the garment of a deceased person, another of a widow, and the garment of the priest.  Other garments were set aside by the owners for specific purpose.  Some garments were worn specifically while praising God; others were worn to seek the face of God. 

Scriptures began to come to my mind that dealt with these issues and I asked God’s help to take off my grave clothes and put on the garments that pleased Him.  I didn’t want to be like Lazarus who when Jesus called His name he jumped up from death, but was still bound and gagged. 

I saw that garments were already promised to be by the Lord.  He said if I mourned, he would give me beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that I would glorify the Lord (Isaiah 61:3).  I learned that if I rejoice in Him that my soul will be joyful in my God because He has covered me with the garments of salvation; covering me with the robe of righteousness and with ornaments like a bridegroom and bride adorn themselves with ornaments and jewels.

One of the benefits of the work of Calvary is to give victory to the believer over life’s situations.  We can overcome the obstacles that come to hinder our mental and physical progress in God.

If you maybe need to change into some lighter garments, God has them waiting for you.  Join me in trading my heavy and unfitting garments for the garment of praise. I promise no longer to be bound but free, to live the abundant life made available through Calvary.

STUCK IN THE MUD

I watched the leaves for the last few days blow from across the street into my ditch.    I waited until the few mornings of frost and rain came and those large maple leaves shrunk to one half their original size, still filling 5 lawn bag.

I went to rake them and some were harder to gather than others.  A few were stuck in the muddy portion of my ditch, hoping they would break free in the wind, to no avail.  My ditch is deep and holds some of the most fertile soil.  The grass that grows there is the greenest and healthiest in the yard.  The snow and rain rest in the bottom of the ditch but many things go over the top and pass on to the neighbor’s yards or street.

I began to understand how God often works in my life.  Many times I feel like that leaf, stuck in the mud in my ditch.  No matter how I try, I can’t move.  I feel as if the weight of a snow storm or a down pour of rain is flowing on top of me .  But, I always survive and seem to grow stronger when my summer season comes.  When I look back over time, even though many things have fallen in my path while stuck, I realize there are more perils that by passed me by because I was stuck in the ditch; protected in my own personal valley.

So the next time you feel as though you’re stuck in the mud or in a valley of your life, remember God has you there for a purpose.  Believe that there are dangers He is protecting you from while He sends the rich nourishment you need to grow for the places He has destined for you to go.  Don’t be discouraged, your season of strength and revitalization will come and your mud will turn to green grass once again

EVERLASTING LOVE

I think we all can say at one time or another we were looking for our one true love.  We dreamed of how they would look, speak, or lavish us with gifts and affection.  Needless to say, when we found them, we had to worry to maintain their affection.  The true relationship is one of give and take to maintain the original spark of love.   We were careful not to do anything to damage the relationship for fear of losing their affection.  Despite all our efforts, that love one either left our lives by way of the gate or the grave.    After the loss of a true love, we may think we’d never love again.  For this reason we should be very careful who we give our heart to.

I have been fortunate to have experienced love many times during my life.  As a result, I’ve had the broken heart that accompanies the end of a relationship.  I’ve also been fortunate that each relationship was progressively better.  I learned more about myself and my unrealistic perspective of love after each relationship.

After the loss of my true love, I realized even then that there was a love in my life that I had overlooked for years.  I didn’t respect His love as I should and consequently didn’t reap the benefits of it during this time of loss.

This is someone who loved me when I didn’t love Him.  He stayed close even when my attention and affection went to others.  His love is everlasting and has stood the test of time.  It’s been with me from my birth and will go beyond my death.  When I finally gave my life to Him, even the angels from His court rejoiced in Heaven.  Even though He shows His love daily, the true sacrifice of His love resonates for me at Easter.  My true and everlasting love gave His life for me at Calvary.  You’ve guessed who it is; it’s Jesus, God manifested in flesh (1Timothy 3:16).

If you’re looking for a real love, like Mary J. Blige sings about, I recommend you look to Jesus.  He’s our true and everlasting love; the lover of our souls. 

GETTING OUT OF DEBT

Each new year before tax season, I review my bills and try to eliminate some debt and future taxes. Large debt reminds me of a terminal illness, once you realize how serious it is, the time is up. At some point, you realize you’re over your head and there is no quick way out. The debt problem today is rampant in our area partly because of the high unemployment rate.

There are many kinds of debt; there is financial debt, a debt to society, or a personal debt. Each debt has their own term and conditions for repayment. The larger the debt, the higher the payment and interest charged. You search for options and solutions to remove the debt. Most credit counselors and businesses offering assistance only talk about debt consolidation, rarely about immediate elimination.

Debt can be devastating. It can force you into many levels of depression and alter your behavior significantly. When a debt is overwhelming, you sometimes feel it could never be repaid, so why try. This cycle of behavior forces you deeper into debt. The get rich schemes are scams. They feed on the desperation of the people in need. Creditors benefit from our debt. The interest continues to eat up any payment we make and the late fees keep the debt at its original amount. The only way to eliminate a debt is for it to be paid or forgiven.

Filing for one of the several types of bankruptcy has become the option for many to eliminate their debt. You must obtain an attorney to represent your case and your debt must be substantial. A judge gives the final ruling to remove your debt.

This reminds me of the debt we owed to God for the sin of Adam, passed to all generations. The wages of sin is death and the only release or payment was an acceptable blood sacrifice. No one met the conditions.

When we understand the gravity of our debt to God and the penalties associated with nonpayment, it can overwhelm us.   We can be flooded with feelings of helpless and hopelessness. This is true, until we consider Jesus.

God recognized our inability to pay our debt. Jesus came to become the acceptable blood sacrifice for the sin of Adam. He came to die so that we don’t have to die in our sins (Romans 5:7-20).

At Calvary the debt was settled.  Jesus rose again, returned to heaven, so another comforter could come (John 14:26) to keep us until He comes back for us. He was our attorney who successfully pleaded and won our case to be free. The only fee required to receive this release from our debt to God is repentance and acceptance of Jesus as our savior.

There is a source that benefits if we continue in sin and derives a certain satisfaction from our weakened condition; this source is Satan. He always makes us feel as if we can play now and pay this debt later.

During this New Year, let’s not forget the debt that was paid on our behalf at the cross. Don’t waste our opportunity to be debt free in the sight of God. Accept the mercy and grace of the cross and follow God’s way and remain debt free. We are free to love and adore a God who loved us enough to give His life to redeem us.

NEW YEAR PRESS

As I look back, I realize the weight of facing some of the worst hardships and life altering challenges during the past two years.  I survived emotionally numbing blows in recent years, and because of the holidays, only to relive some incidents afresh.  I lost loved ones and friends dear to my heart.  I saw the true colors of many, left abandoned and like my grandma use to say, up the creek without a paddle, on several occasions. 

It seemed that at every turn, another door was either closed in my face or at my back.  I felt boxed in and forced in a state of bondage.  There were times I called out asking God if He saw me.  I felt as if He was watching me suffer these things as He watched the guards beat Jesus beyond recognition.  I felt my old nature rise and a bit of old Chris resurfaced; the one that jumps into action to take care of Chris and handle people and situations.  I want to keep that old girl under control because she’s dangerous.  The last time I let her have free reign for just 1 hour, it took years and several attorneys to get things resolved.  The reborn Chris just kept saying be still, do nothing, God is not blind nor has He turned His back on you.  It’s God that has brought you to this place and time in life.  Wait on God, my spirit would say.

I started to imagine my situation.  My spirit was feeling as if I’m standing in a paneled room boxed in with no visible way of escape.  Each wall of this room is touching me on the front, the back, and the sides.   I wait with my hands folded behind my back.  I kept hearing a familiar clicking sound.  Familiar in that I know I’ve heard is somewhere before, long ago.  Then I remembered our old camper.  The cabinets and closets in it didn’t have handles and the surface look streamlined and you had to know where to press them to get them to open.  I had trouble with a few of them, just couldn’t seem to get the press right to make it open until several tries. 

Then I heard God say to press with my hands behind me, and a door opened.  I stepped back and God began to give me insight into why things happened this year.  No great mystery, it was His will and it was what was best for all involved.  He showed me how the past two years were a proving year for me.  He showed me how much He loved me and had invested in me.  It was a year during which I was being branded for His purpose for my life, to write of His glory, as John was banished to the Isle of Patmos to write the book of Revelations.    One mistake was to believe in the word of people and depend on them for help and not look to God first then He would send the help I needed.    

 I found myself back in that paneled room and I was instructed to press again on a place in front of me.  As I did, a door opened.  As I stepped out the way wasn’t clearly marked and a bit foggy and unstable in places.  God whispered, if I trust Him, He’ll lead me and show me the way.  To be successful, I’d have to get rid of the useless baggage from the past year that would hold me down or cause me to fall.

Beyond the love and investment God has placed in me, I take away from this image that even when people and situations seem to have us boxed in, all we have to do is look and wait on Jesus; then press, and He’ll open a way of escape.  If we trust Him, He will lead and guide us through our day to day life.  To be successful, I must press the door closed on the past and focus on today with Christ. 

For 2015 join with me in my resolve, like that of the Apostle Paul described in Philippians 3:1-15, to forget those things which are behind, and reaching for those things ahead, then press the mark, for the prize, which is the high calling of God, in Christ Jesus.  Let’s do a New Year Press.