Something Amazing

When I was younger, my sister and I would pick dandelion bouquets for our mother. Even though it wasn’t a dozen roses, it was just a handful of weeds, my mother still loved it. The dandelion bouquet was a double bonus: a sign of our love for her and she got her garden weeded. The same way it is for God, we do good works because we love Him and want to please Him. It is also a double bonus: a sign of our love for God and we help His other children.

No matter how big our dandelion-picking-love is for God, His will always be bigger, deeper, fuller, all consuming love. His grace in saving us wasn’t just what we did not deserve but He also chases after us. He pursues us with His love and His grace. He sacrificed His son and He won’t let that go to waste.

God didn’t just save us willy-nilly, He didn’t just say, “Sure, I’ll take that one”; He didn’t choose you by accident. God didn’t create you by mistake and He sure didn’t save you by mistake. God created you and loved you for a divine reason. God gave you a second chance and a third chance and a twentieth chance and fifty-seventh chance for a reason! He did it more than just because He loves you, more than because He wants you to be happy, He did it because He has a divine purpose for you. God sent His son to die a horrific death on the cross to save you so that you could do something amazing. Something amazing like sitting and listening to a coworker after a hard day. Something amazing like baby-sitting for a single mom. Something amazing like visiting someone in a nursing home. Something amazing like building a house. Something amazing like being known as the Christian in the family. Something amazing like fixing cars. You have been saved for a purpose and that is to do good works, to help others. When we love others, we are loving our Lord and we are fulfilling the first and the second greatest commandments.

We are to live saved every day, we are to live knowing that there is a God up there and that He is large and in charge. We are to use our talents to fulfill our God-given, divine purpose every day. If you think your background, age, or  education are reasons why God can’t use you, think again. Look at who the Lord Almighty, Creator of the heavens and the Earth, chose to be His son’s earthly foster parents: an unwed teenage peasant girl and a carpenter from a town in the middle of nowhere. Look at who Jesus, our Savior and Redeemer, spent His time with: under-educated fishermen, crooked tax collectors, reformed prostitutes. If you believe that God created the universe, then God using you to fulfill a divine purpose is like a cakewalk to Him.

Now go out and do something amazing, go out and fulfill your purpose knowing that God has your back and your future.

---

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Jeremiah 29:13

Flicker/Art4TheGlryOfGod by Sharon

This Changes Everything ~ A Cento Poem

 

Empty manger perfect stranger, about to be born, into darkness sadness
Des’prate madness, creation is so torn, we were so lost on earth
Warm hay cold sweat, a mother not yet, praying God-speed the dawn
She looks to her man, holding her hand, they wonder how long
They did not find a palace, just a humble village home and searching for a King
Lowly and small, the weakest of all, unlikeliest hero wrapped in His mother’s shawl
But finding a Child, no crown, no throne, still they bowed down
Expectation turned to mystery
For nothing was like anything they’d dreamed
It’s still a mystery to me
That the Hands of God could be so small
How tiny fingers reachin’ in the night
Were the very hands that measure the sky
Still a mystery to me
How His infant eyes had seen the dawn of time
How His ears had heard an angel symphony
Just a Child, is this who we’ve waited for
‘Cause how many kings stepped down from their thrones
How many lords have abandoned their homes
How many greats have become the least for me
And how many gods have poured out their hearts
To romance a world that has torn all apart
How many fathers gave up their sons for me
That the King would come for us, this changes everything
A Baby born to save, to save the souls of man
Born that we may have life
You were born that we may have life
A throne in a manger, a cross in a cradle
The hidden revealing this glorious plan
Of the child who would suffer, the child who would conquer
The sin of every woman, the sin of every man
And the world didn’t know, mercy was meek and so mild
And the world didn’t know, that truth was as pure as a child
And the world didn’t know, redemption was sweet and so strong
And the world didn’t know, salvation was writing a song
That the King would come for us, this changes everything

After Now

Why is it that I find your beauty

now, so enticing?

Why now, and not before?

Why is it that you were a mere commonality before,

but now, you are gloriously enrapturing,

heart-breaking and heart-warming

Have my eyes changed?

Have you changed?

Have you transformed from a single glance

to a forever – yet ever to short -of a gaze?

Or is it me?

***

There is a painting of a ship at sea

on my office wall

I have seen it everyday for as long as I can remember

but now, after all these years

do I finally realized how beautiful it is.

I finally appreciate it.

Why now, and not before?

I have read countless books about

sailors

boats

the sea

explorers and whalers

I have learned countless history lessons about events with sailors and boats

I have seen countless movies about the sea

I have read personal accounts concerning explorers and whalers

I have ridden the open waves with no land in sight

I have stared into that sinister, powerful, murky depth

and I have stared into those mystical, lapping, crashing ocean waves

In every sense I’ve been in that painting

but until now, it was just a painting,

but after now, it has its own life

own story

own tears to cry

own cheers to shout

own dead to bury

own lips to smile

own love to find

After now, it is not just something to look at

but something to be a part of

Why now, and not before

do I love you?

Because I finally understand you

and I know that I never truly can either

Snow Day

Waiting and watching the snow fall

piling up on bushes and bare tree tops

cars and time begin to crawl

Waiting and watching until the news drops

Anticipation is met with joy

When the news arrives

we know the next few free hours we will enjoy

celebration involves shrieks and high-fives

All of these reactions are similar

whether you are five or seventeen

but how surprise freedom is spent is where they differ

young ones go and play in the billowing snow and gorge themselves on hot coco cuisine

older ones sleep and watch Netflix and procrastinate Sunday night homework

but to those who drive, remember to be safe on the road

is this trip really worth the work?

Drive with caution and keep the pace slowed

While all the school children have a rosy grin

because of the treat of a snow day

Mother Nature granted them a win

and for school to stay away

 

King Jesus

I thought this blog post summed up what Christmas is truly all about and wanted to share it with all of my readers! I like the way Jonathan takes a message from each of Jesus’ visitors.

The Ministry of JC

Christmas is upon us.

Unfortunately, this news is greeted with mixed emotions in the 21st century. Not least because a modern day Christmas is crazy stuff. It is full throttle. Pedal to the metal. Flying on all cylinders sorta stuff.

And naturally, our priorities are angled towards other things. Amongst the stuff, we tend to drop God down our list of priorities.

In fact, a prevailing view in society today is that Christ has lost relevance. This is a vague objection often blindly asserted in public places. It is this mammoth misconception founded on the belief that because times have changed, we don’t need God anymore.

Hate to be blunt, but you couldn’t be more wrong.

At Christmas we celebrate God putting us at the top of his priority list.

Christmas isn’t our busy lives stepping into God, but God stepping into our busy lives. Identifying with us. Sharing in our sufferings. Showing the deep…

View original post 1,128 more words

What My Dog Wants

My dog normally likes to stay away from me, well except when there is food around. 🙂 It’s not that he doesn’t like me (well, I hope not) but he just prefers to be alone.

So when he comes into my room, I know that he wants something. Kind of a sad mentality that my dog can’t just want me, but wants something from me.

I’m not complaining about my dog, I do have a point.

When I go and find my dog and want to spend time with him or pet him, he usually tolerates me for a couple minutes then goes away.

I feel like too often we can be like my dog, except towards God. We only go to God when we want something and when God seeks us out, we tolerate Him and then say “I’ve done my Christian duty for the week, I can go and do my own thing now.”

For me when my dog doesn’t want me, it hurts but I know he is just moody. It adds to his charm. But think about how God must feel when we tolerate him or treat Him like an one-hour-duty on Sunday. He must feel like the computer techs at the store, you know the ones you only go to when your computer is all buggy and you are all grumpy. No one ever stops by the computer store techies just to say hello or that they are loved.

God, the Creator of the Universe, wants His creation to recognize Him, to look at His work and say thanks.

Jesus, our Savior and Redeemer from our sins, wants those He saved to love Him back. His death on the cross also says, “I love you, love me back”.

God, the divine writer of the Scriptures, put so much time and effort into the world around us, into the Bible, into other Christians and He is saying, “Look at all I did, spend some time with Me. I hold you in My hand, I protect you, spend some time with Me.”

But God is not some love-sick puppy chasing after humanity; however, God does chase us and He does love us. God’s love is so much deeper, so much fuller, so much greater than we can ever imagine. God will never forsake us, He is with us through thick and thin.

So go and spend some time with the Creator of the Universe. He created a personal telephone line just for you. Toll free. The line is never busy. You will never be put on hold. So pray and sing and meditate and read and praise and talk and stand in awe of God. Go and spend time with your Father Above, God Almighty, your Savior and Redeemer, you best friend. I guarantee that you will be glad you did.  Better yet, God guarantees it.

---

“But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” -Romans 5: 8

We Must Be Best Friends ~ Tanka Poems

I love the little

things about you, my dear friend

How we get each other

I smile and you understand

We must be best friends

***

Just an hour with you

can keep me happy for days

Your sunshine clears clouds

I take a break from the world

We must be best friends

Pixabay/user:Mary_L