Thursday, August 30, 2012

What gets you excited?

Can you imagine how nice it would be if people got as excited about Jesus as they do about football?

Just think about it for a minute....

There are people who wear their team's jersey every day. They have bumper stickers. They have parties to celebrate wins and losses. They proudly proclaim, "I'm a ____________ fan!!" (You fill in the blank with your favorite team.) They are happy when their team wins, and mope around when their team loses. They pay mega bucks to get the extra sports channels so they don't miss a game. They will pay massive amounts of money to follow their team to the super bowl if they get the chance. They will take a chance on even getting a ticket into the game. They will sleep on the sidewalk just for a chance to see their team from a vantage point that makes all players look like ants win a game.

What if all that time and money were spent in discipleship for God? What if the nation decided it's ridiculous to pay these athletes millions of dollars to play a game they would probably play anyway?

(AND on a side note, how many of these very well paid professional athletes play that sport with their own children when they get home? Or coach the local team of kids in that sport? Just some thoughts.)

I'm not antisport, either. As a matter of fact I just signed my youngest up to play soccer and we've been practicing each day. I think it's a good thing physically and mentally. It's something we get excited about in our house now; however, we get more excited about our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us! Jesus died for us so that we could live! Can we say that about any one of those people we all gather around 'the box' to watch and cheer on each week?

What about taking a side for a fictional character? Are you team Edward or team Jacob? I haven't seen that kind of proclamation about our Lord. Team Jesus or Team Satan? Everyone just assumes His light will shine through. His light will shine through; but, we have to open the shades. We have to declare, "Team Jesus!" and choose to follow His team. There's no better team. It won't be easy to follow Him all the time. There will be many obstacles in the way trying to make you change your team colors, trying to make you think God's simplicity isn't real. It is real. His love for us is real and He will guide us to a touchdown every time if we let Him. He loves us so much he sent his very own son to die for us. How much more committed could the Lord be to us, His children?

Food for thought this morning as I drink my coffee.

Have a blessed day. Oh, and one more thing: Jesus loves you, yes you.

Tela



Sunday, August 26, 2012

He's Coming

He's Coming.

I woke up one night saying those words. He's coming. My husband said, "Who's coming?"
I answered, "God." I breathed deeply. "And He's not happy."
Steve said, "Uh oh."
I said, "He's not mad. He's sad."
I had a dream that I was at some kind of convention, without my family, and we were packing up to go home. I was looking forward to seeing my family. Then I learned that someone needed help finding their husband. A storm was coming. I went out onto this dock and could see the ocean just churning. There were news crews on the scene everywhere down on the beach. I stepped to the end of the pier where the woman wondered where her husband was. A man was there, too, whom I had went to school with. We all 3 took hands and could feel the winds whipping around us. I could feel the debris from the destruction on my skin, but it didn't hurt me. All the muddy mess was on me, but it didn't even harm me. Then I felt HIM. God was coming. The non-believers were being swept away. I could have looked to my right and seen it all, but I dared not look. I was watching what was in the water. Jesus' face was in the water. I asked the man to my left, "Do you see Him?"
He nodded and said, "I see Jesus."
I was filled with peace knowing my family was safe. I knew that even though God was wiping out the non-believers I didn't have to worry about my family. We were safe in the arms of Jesus. I had to keep my eye on Jesus and there He was, right there in the water helping me with keeping my focus.
I woke up mumbling, "He's coming. He's coming. He's coming."
We have to reach out to everyone and tell them Jesus loves them! We have to somehow help plant the seeds so God can gather in His children who may be lost. He's coming and we have to save as many people as possible.

My boys got baptized today. They both have taken the Lord as their guide and savior. Watching them today brought tears of joy to my eyes. It's good to have God to believe in. Without Him we might as well be on a sea in a boat without a rudder and not even the sun or moon to guide us. I'm glad they know they need Him as their guide.

I'm glad I know God is my Savior. I always believed in God, but now I truly believe. I want to know more. I want to live for Him and help do His work. I was asked to commit my life to God and at that moment, I knew. I am God's child. He will get me through anything.

What do you believe in?

Tela

Saturday, August 18, 2012

School Memories of Common Sense

What has happened to common sense? Has it flown the coop? Have we educated it out of our systems? Have we decided that the powers that be know better than we know ourselves how to act? Are we so lazy we would rather someone else decide what's best for us?

My family and I were discussing school rules from my time and from now. When I was in school I can remember being given a turkey name tag and told to search out the bus with the turkey on the front of it. That was the bus that would take me home. Well, that's simple matching skills that anyone can do! Look at the turkey on my shirt and look for the turkey in the window. There's a turtle- nope, not a match. There's a rabbit- oh I wish I had been given a cute rabbit, but no, not a match. Wait a minute, there's a brown turkey, that's mine! Simple matching skills!

Of course that was the old times when things were different. The bell for the end of the day rang and we kids wanted to go home so we went to our appointed buses. If our parents came to pick us up, there were no car lines. Our parents parked and we students went to the car and left! Isn't that a novel idea?

Now we have car lines that people line up for at the beginning of the day. They just drop off the kid in the appointed line and swing around to the end to wait until the end of the day when they pick them back up. Seriously, there are people who start lining up almost 2 hours before school lets out to pick up their kid from school. I'm sorry, this makes no sense. The parents all line up so the kids can all line up and the teachers can all line up to distribute them to the appropriate cars.
Ohhhh, and the bells. Schools now have about 3 different bells to ring at the end of the day. I was subbing a couple of years ago. The bell rang at the end of the day and I thought, "Awwww, I can go home!!" Nope, there were still kids sitting there. I told them the bell rang and they said it wasn't their bell. Come to find out there was a bell that rang for bus riders, a bell for car riders, and a bell for walkers and others. Good grief! That's scheduled to death I believe.

Used to one bell would ring for the end of the day and somehow we all made it to our appropriate destinations without too much difficulty or I wouldn't be sitting here typing this now.

Seems sad to me that common sense is going by the wayside in accomplishing things. I believe common courtesy also plays a role here. How often do you see anyone let someone else cut into traffic when there's a long line? How often do people stop to let someone cross the road? How can we be so callus?

Watched the movie Walle with my Gabe last night and if you watch it you can see where common sense went out the window and was replaced with the higher ups telling the common person everything they needed to do from what kind of food to eat to how to dress. These people were told everything to do all in the name of keeping them safe and sound. How much of this is really happening now with our government and our society? How much are we allowing to happen without seeing the consequences of it in the future. Why do we need tags on hair dryers that say for us not to use it in the bathtub? Because our common sense is going down the drain.

Have a blessed day!
Tela

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Love + Respect = Peace

Websters dictionary defines love as "to feel a passion, devotion, or tenderness for; to take pleasure in; a beloved person."

Websters dictionary defines respect as "to consider deserving of high regard."

We cannot have peace until we have mutual love and respect for each other. We have to accept that people are not carbon copies of each other; and, really who would want that? We would lead really boring lives if we were all exactly alike. Where's the fun in a life where everyone and everything is exactly alike? People are different! That doesn't make one bad and another good. It makes us human. Why should we get in a fight about differences? Celebrate them!

We have to learn to communicate with each other before we get into a fight. Don't be so quick to scream at the other person. When you scream, thinking you are making someone hear you better, you are only pushing that person further away from you. You are pushing them further away from the possibility of a peaceful solution.

What I really want to say is this: God loves you. If you really want to know what true peace is, allow God to love you. I didn't know I was worthy of His love. I have never known such peace as when I said yes to my commitment to the Lord. All those things that seem to be impossible to me seem attainable. I talk about more good things than bad. I have a different approach of handling the bad things that happen to me. I really do find myself thinking about how Jesus would handle things. He fills me with such peace.

Here is my plan. Maybe instead of getting mad at people we should show them a touch of kindness. How good it feels to do something nice for someone. Personally, I love to cook. There is something very satisfying about fixing something nice to eat and sharing it with someone. The look that crosses someone's face over a nice home cooked meal is priceless. I think the next time I see that someone is mad at me, I'll try baking them a loaf of bread and some homemade salsa. That's something that is guaranteed to put a smile on their face. Then maybe we can have a nice chat instead of an argument.

Love + Respect = Peace  Let's all try it.

Happy Reading!
Tela