Inspirations

It’s in the past!   What wonderful knowledge!  I rejoice in the knowledge that God is not concerned about what we did in the past.  Isn’t that amazing!  When we come to him, the past is, well, past.   God does not care about it or hold it against us.  If God is not concerned with the past, then a person’s past should not concern us either as long as it is the past.  Our past does not need to define who we are now and we should not define others by what they were in the past.  Sometimes we all need to remember that none of us is without sin, we all have a past.  It’s easy to forget when others and even Satan can remind of our or other’s past that we need to let that past be the past.  How freeing and empowering to know that God is more concerned with the present than he is with the past.  Anything good, or bad that you’ve done in the past is just that the past.  God says, “I’m concerned with where you are no...

I was taking my aunt to see my mom in the hospital.   As I drove, our conversation turned to spiritual things.  As we talked she said, “How can I know I’m going to heaven?”  Wow!!!  Talk about an open door! This opportunity does not happen every day.  I began to explain that the only thing we need to do is believe and trust God.   Then it happened.  She said, “Well, I already believe in God."   I thought this is going to be easy.  Nope!   I asked, “Well, do you trust God?   Will you let him direct your life?  Suddenly she had a billion excuses for why that was impossible.  I would love to tell you she committed her life to Christ that day, but she didn’t.  Yes, I was sad and disappointed that I could not make her understand that believing IN God was not enough.  Since then I have heard many others say I believe in God yet, sadly, their life tells another story.  As I read James, I come to a verse tha...

So my plan for today was to travel with my husband to Binghamton to visit with his family that we have not seen in forever….. ok at least 20 years.  I made sure I asked for the time off everything was set, or so I thought.  I found out one of the days I asked for was denied.  This meant shortening our stay in Binghamton, but we were still set to go.  Then, earlier this week we found out that his family had other plans so we decided to wait and go later when they would be available.  Now I was left with two days off and nothing planned.  One thing I decided was that I was not sitting home and doing nothing for the two day off.  So I decided to go visit a local beach.   I put my mp3 on and walked on the beach.  It was lovely.  I even took some pictures.  Often it’s easy to be irritable when we have to change our plans or when our day does not work out the way we planned.  Sometimes, when we have to change our plans we ...

I dropped Ryan and Abigail off at a camp for a week.  When we got out of the car at the camp, we had only walked a few feet when Abby stopped mid-stride.  I looked and there was a bird standing on the ground less than three feet away and it was scolding and yelling at her.  We did the normal thing in that situation; we grabbed our camera and started taking pictures.  Isn’t that what you do? Ok maybe not, but we knew this was a once in a lifetime shot.  My daughter kept watching it and finally said, “I think it has a broken wing." Later, I was talking with some workers and they said this bird is called a killdeer.  It acts this way to protect its eggs.  It will attack or draw you away from its nest by pretending to be hurt.  As I watched it, I thought WOW!  I wonder if this is how God guards us!  As much as that killdeer loved and protected those eggs, God loves and protects us more.  He loves us and puts himself between us an...

Growing up we had an older neighbor who would often go out walking after supper.  On his wanderings, he would often stop to chat.  Once when I was about ten or twelve, my dad wanted me to do an errand for him. I did what came naturally, to someone born out in the boondocks.  I ran to do the errand. Running back to where my dad and the man were standing and talking, the man looked at me and said, “You are really good at running."  I had never given it much thought until that moment. Later, in high school gym class, we had to run a mile.  While I like sports, I was never extremely good at sports, but running was different. Some were dismayed, but I was happy because I remembered what the man said.    I ran like the wind.  I am sure I did not come in first, but I was in the top three. I stood a little straighter after that because I knew that I could do something that not everyone could or wanted to do, run.  No, I never joined the track t...

I like love salt!  I have from the time I was little. Salty snacks are especially tantalizing.  In my opinion, there is nothing better than a salty chip, pretzel, popcorn, peanuts and a movie. I know health wise they are better choices for a snack, but occasionally I just need that snack.  Don’t give me unsalted potato chips or pretzels, they are not of God. I know I could have an unsalted snack and they would be healthier. Food without salt is bland and found lacking.  God says that we are the salt of the earth.  We are the seasoning.  We are the salt on the potato chip.  The salt on the potato chip makes us want water.  If you eat a salty snack like a chip or a peanut and in a short time, you need something to drink.  The salt makes us thirsty. In the same way, we should make people want the living water, Jesus.  People should see something in us that makes them want what we have. I want to be enough different from the worl...

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, I was watching a TV show called “Undercover Boss” the other day.  The episode I watched was about sanitation workers.  As I was watching, one person stood out.  His job was to clean port-a-potties.  As they were working, he kept saying I’m not just a sanitation worker, I am the best sanitation worker.  I couldn’t help but smile as I watched him.  His attitude was contagious.  I thought, "man! that guy is having too much fun cleaning poop".  At the place I work, we had a door greeter who had this same perspective. He always had carts ready for people; if it was raining or snowing, he had the carts dry; He always had a cheery hello kiddo for everyone he met.  What set both of these people apart from most other people is that though their jobs were not enviable, and they could have looked at their jobs as unimportant and even undesirable....