Inspirations

If I said, “We don’t live in a perfect world.”  Almost everyone reading this blog would say, “no!”  Some of you would say, “What was your first clue, Sherlock?”  Others would say, “Now tell me something I don’t know.”  In fact, it would be hard to find anyone  on the planet who thinks this world is perfect unless the word “mess” is added after the word “perfect”.    One only needs to take a quick look around to realize that this world is broken.  In fact, the Bible says that “For we know that even the things of nature, like animals and plants, suffer in sickness and death as they await this great event.  So, here’s my question.   IF everyone agrees that this world is far from perfect, WHY do so many of us chase perfection trying to attain, to lay hold, of it?  We look for the “perfect spouse.”   We move from job to job hoping to find the perfect job.   We transfer from one college to an...

As I was reading The story of “The Prodigal Son”  in Matthew.   I have read it many times, and you probably have too.  As I was reading, God focused my attention not on the prodigal, but the father.   When the son demanded his inheritance, the father could have said, “I am not giving you your inheritance right now.” Or “You’re not responsible enough to handle it yet” …. but he didn’t.  The father gave him the estate possibly knowing what the outcome would be.  Why would he let him have his way?  I believe it is because God will NEVER force us to love him.  The son’s, there were two, had the same choice that we have.  We can choose to love God or not.  When the son left his father’s house, the one thing we don’t see is the father “chasing after his son.  The father let the son go.  The father NEVER once bails him out. Did he not love the Son?  Of course he did!  The son went out and made a zillion bad life choice...

What is worse than being hated, rejected, and falsely accused?  How about being forgotten, the victim of broken promises.  When Joseph was home, his brother’s hated him.  Joseph was probably smart enough to realize that fact.  When Potiphar's wife accused Joseph, he was probably under no delusion that she truly cared about him.  However, when Joseph was stuck in that terrible, horrendous prison, there were two men  who were under Joseph’s care.   The men were probably friends.  Friends can forget about us, strangers can not.  He might have been happy if his brother’s had forgotten him.  He would have been content if Mrs. Potiphar had forgotten about him.  But….  very little hurts more that being forgotten by a friend. They were sad  and when Joseph asks, “Why are you so down?”  They told him about their dreams.  He told them what their dreams meant.  In three days, one prisoner would be kille...

I am still thinking about Jacob’s son, Joseph.   Once Joseph arrived in Egypt,  he was sold as a slave you would think everything turned around, and life was good, right?  Wrong!  He was a good worker.  In fact, he was so good and trustworthy that Potiphar put him in charge of his house.  Things were indeed looking up for Joseph until Mrs. Potifar noticed Joseph.  By noticed, I mean she made sexual advances because Joseph was “hot”.   Joseph had a choice.    He could give in to the advances of Potiphar’s wife. After all, Joseph was stuck in a foreign country against his will.  What would it hurt if he slept with Mrs. Potifar?  Potiphar would be getting what he deserved.  Right? The other option was to follow his conscience and God and refuse to comply with her demands, even though, the lady would be mad.  Don't think for a moment that he chose the easy road.  No, he chose to ignore her a...

I’ve been reading about Joseph.  You know, Jacob’s son.  As I was reading and thinking,  God showed me that it was more than just a story of a family from Bible times.  As I was reading, I was reminded that Joseph knew what it was like to be hated and rejected by his brothers.  Joseph faced the same problem that many of us face today.   While most of us have not confronted the hatred of others to the point that people want to kill us, we have all at one time or another dealt with people who just don’t like us.   They may not kill us, but they make sure we are aware that they do not like us.   When we see people who just hate us we can take heart we are not the first one to ever be rejected.  We are not facing a new thing.  We are not facing something that others do not or have not faced.   What an awesome reminder when I’m staring down the enemy!    When we face these trials, there is ...

This year more than other years,  I've been hearing and reading about people who are "giving things up" for Lent.  Most of the people that I have heard of are giving up stuff like Facebook, chocolate, movies.  I think I should give up work. Hahahaha ok not really.  I applaud these people. Lent is a time when we are supposed to be preparing for Easter and if "fasting" from something helps you in that endeavor then more power to you.  I would, however, like to suggest that we look at our motives.  I am not writing this to say that these people are wrong in their "fasts".  I have no idea of their motives; that's between them and God and not my business.  I WOULD like to suggest that we test our motives.  Are we giving something up so that we can have more time with God? or just more time, in general?  I  want to urge you/ myself to be sure that if we're hoping to "free up time"  to put the extra time to good...

“Well, that was a waste of time!”  My husband said this to me just a few days ago.   I said it at work just a few weeks ago.  A coworker said it a few a while ago. We have probably all said this or at least felt this way once in a while.  Usually, it’s because we look at things in our life or something we’ve done or tried to accomplish that didn’t work out as we had hoped.   We end up feeling frustrated or irritated and let down.  We may feel that we have wasted our time.  We may feel like we are in a rut that we can not climb out of.  We can take heart that God does not waste anything.   Even the things that we feel are a waste of OUR time are not a waste of HIS  time   That is good news!  Those things are never wasted that we trust to God’s care.  Isn’t it awesome to realize that we will never hear God say,  “That was a waste of my time” or “I can’t waste my time with that person!”  ...