Better than Biscuits!
I have tried hard to find you—
….don’t let me wander from your commands.
I have hidden your word in my heart,
….that I might not sin against you. Psalm 119:10-11 NLT
Romans 8:28-30 (<<click here to read the passage)
Maybe you’ve seen this, but even if you have it’s worth reading again.
One Sunday morning at a small southern church, the new pastor called on one of his older deacons to lead in the opening prayer. The deacon stood up, bowed his head, and said, “Lord, I hate buttermilk.”
The pastor opened one eye and wondered where this was going. The deacon continued, “Lord, I hate lard.” Now the pastor was totally perplexed. The deacon continued, “Lord, I ain’t too crazy about plain flour. But after you mix ’em all together and bake ’em in a hot oven, I just love biscuits.”
“Lord, help us to realize when life gets hard, when things come up that we don’t like, whenever we don’t understand what You are doing, that we need to wait and see what You are making. After You get through mixing and baking, it’ll probably be something even better than biscuits. Amen.”
Most of us are familiar with the 28th verse of today’s passage. Here it is from the New Living Translation,
And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
I read through that in my study Bible but when I read it in the Amplified Bible on biblegateway.com it triggered something in my mind. Here’s the same verse in that translation.
And we know [with great confidence] that God [who is deeply concerned about us] causes all things to work together [as a plan] for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to His plan and purpose.
…as a plan… Not will-nilly…not pick and chose what you like and omit what you don’t like… It’s a plan, God’s perfect plan. No matter what is a part of our lives, God can bring it to a wonderful, beautiful finish. We may think that many of our contributions have messed things up beyond repair. But God is the Master Chef knowing everything about everything (omniscient) and He can take the buttermilk (my grandmother liked it but, yuck – I sure don’t!) and lard (it’s OK in certain things but I wouldn’t eat a spoonful of it!) and plain flour (I wouldn’t dare!) and put them all together and make something much more amazing than biscuits from the hodge-podge of our lives!
Lord Jesus, use me as you will! Amen!
Mar 27th, 2023, Mon, 6:29 pm
Tap Your Brakes
You have charged us
….to keep your commandments carefully.
Oh, that my actions would consistently
….reflect your decrees!
As I learn your righteous regulations,
….I will thank you by living as I should!
I will obey your decrees.
….Please don’t give up on me! Psalm 119:4-5, 7-8 NLT
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Friday morning as I pulled up to the stop sign waiting to pull out onto the state route to begin my elementary bus route, I looked to my left and saw a vehicle just pulling past Sparta, the village closest to the school. I could easily have pulled out with plenty of room to spare…but I didn’t. I don’t know anyone who likes to get stuck behind a school bus – myself included! So, I didn’t pull out but let them go past me and then pulled out.
I had no sooner done so when glancing forward, the vehicle now driving ahead of me flashed their brake lights three times. To me, it was a “thank you”, I often do the same thing. Maybe it wasn’t the intent of the gesture but I’m taking it that way. Often in life, it’s the little things that matter. It was obvious that the other driver knew that I didn’t have to wait for them to pass, but as they pulled away going faster than I was, they were grateful that I had allowed them to go on their way unhindered by my “speed-limit-abiding” driving.
Sometimes it’s the little things that impact our lives most. A kind act buoys up our day. And any kindness perpetrated, no matter how small, changes a person and we truly have no idea the trajectory the recipient’s life might take.
OK…that’s one side of my thoughts, but the other side has the same results – impact and change of trajectory – yet involves different characters. Humanity is on the receiving end, but God is the perpetrator of kindness. Every day, we are the recipients of His kindness – evil and good, just and unjust alike.
Jesus proclaimed in Matthew 5:43-45,
“You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike.
Kindness is not just a nice sentiment – and before we go any further let’s use a stronger word for what kindness truly is – love.
Once again, every day God loves us in an infinite number of ways. Some of those ways we comprehend, we see, we understand. In other ways that God shows us His love, we simply have no clue. He just does. And because He does, our lives are forever changed. They are eternally impacted, and a change of trajectory takes place…and all for the better!
So my suggestion would be to tap your brakes a couple of times, each and every day…it’s the least you can do to say “thank you”!
Mar 26th, 2023, Sun, 7:11 pm
In Our Weakness
I know that I should be spending more time with You, Father, but I am glad that this time is a point of commitment for me. May it be what You desire it to be. Amen.
Romans 8:26-27 (<<click here to read the passage)
A song many of us learn early on is Jesus Loves Me. And it’s one of those songs that we don’t mind singing as adults either. (A few years ago, I shared a post, History of “Jesus Loves Me”, click on the title if you’d like to read it.) But as I read through today’s passage, the opening stanza came to mind.
Jesus loves me, this I know,
for the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to him belong;
they are weak, but he is strong.
The beginning of verse 26 reads,
And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness.
The example the Apostle Paul gives talks about our praying. I spoke of my need for a deeper prayer life in the past, and it is still something that I need but with which I continue to struggle. The verse doesn’t give us a reason to cop out on praying but I think we all realize that many times there are situations in our lives that are just very difficult. (Real fast here’s Cambridge Dictionary’s definition of cop out – to avoid doing something that you should do or that you have promised to do because you are frightened, shy, or you think it is too difficult. Ouch, that smarts!)
But we must not think that we are totally inept when it comes to praying about hard things, i.e. death, pain, and suffering. God calls us to do what we can and beyond that, we are often at a loss. But He’s got us covered!
Here’s all of today’s passage,
And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers [God’s holy people] in harmony with God’s own will. NLT
We surely can’t be surprised! Remember Emmanuel? God with us! He, in so many ways, picks up the slack that even with our best efforts, we cannot begin to do. We are incapable, by the frailty of our being.
Once again, the opening stanza of Jesus Loves Me,
Jesus loves me, this I know,
for the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to him belong;
they are weak, but he is strong.
We are small, we are weak, we are frail…but He is strong! May we lean on Him who will never let us down! Amen!
Mar 21st, 2023, Tue, 5:49 pm
Spirit Control
Father, thank You for Your hand in all the things we are in the middle of. Everything is coming together in the best possible way. All praise to You!
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One thing that I regularly take advantage of is the cruise control on my bus. I’ve had some lengthy portions of a state route since I started driving. It’s odd but for some reason, I tend to pick up speed heading back to the schools – and it’s a gradual uphill grade all the way. (We’re Highland Local Schools for a reason!)
I strive to abide by all posted speed limits, but I will regularly creep upwards toward 60 in a 55 mph zone. I’ve learned that setting my cruise control to 55, eliminates that problem. I try to set it at the beginning of my high school route, but after a few stops I forget…until I’m heading down a downhill stretch. I see I’m getting above the speed limit, so I hit my cruise to set myself aright. Interestingly enough, I’ve found that when I first activate it, there is a brief surge and then it settles down to 55.
It’s like my engine is going, “Oh, yeah, here we go! I’m going to move now!” and then realizes, “Oh, I guess not… I’m heading back to where I need to be…”
It’s a little odd how my mind works, but today when it happened, my mind made a connection with how the Holy Spirit works in our lives. And instead of cruise control, it’s even more important that we have Spirit control!
There are times in life when we’re cruising right along, and we start to get into dangerous territory. With Spirit control, we throttle down back into safe territory and out of danger’s way.
There are times too, especially with traffic behind me, when I tend to maybe drop below the posted speed limit. Most people, myself included, don’t strictly adhere to the speed limit but regularly run about five miles an hour faster. So, when there are people behind me, I want to make sure that I’m driving as fast as I am able to.
How many times in our spiritual journey, do we lose track of what’s what and begin to unknowingly slow down? Being in Spirit control helps us maintain the best pace for our growth and development in the Lord. Keeping in step with the Spirit, helps us stay on the straight and narrow and helps us keep our focus on Him.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who by faith have testified to the truth of God’s absolute faithfulness], stripping off every unnecessary weight and the sin which so easily and cleverly entangles us, let us run with endurance and active persistence the race that is set before us, [looking away from all that will distract us and] focusing our eyes on Jesus, who is the Author and Perfecter of faith [the first incentive for our belief and the One who brings our faith to maturity]… Hebrews 12:1-2a AMP (emphasis mine)
Mar 15th, 2023, Wed, 6:25 pm
Past, Present, and Future
Father, You are fully aware that there have been some twists and turns in situations close to our hearts. You are already there; we trust that Your will will be done. Amen.
Romans 8:24-25 (<<click here to read the passage)
In reading the notes of my Life Application Study Bible New Living Translation, I found the comments on verses 24-25 very interesting. I’ve never thought of our salvation this way, but it stated that in Romans, Paul presents the idea that salvation is past, present, and future.
It is past in that from the instant we placed our faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior we have been saved. Romans 3:22-24 reads,
We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. NLT
Our new life – eternal life – begins at that moment.
And it is present because each day we are being saved. Paul speaks a lot on this concept from the beginning of chapter 6 through the end of chapter 8. From the moment we accept Jesus’s forgiveness, we begin our journey of becoming like Him. Sometimes it feels like a one step forward, two steps back kind of thing.
We have this habit of thinking that we are the only ones that struggle, but the reality of it all is that we all struggle. Yes, some may be more diligent in pursuing Jesus and His call on their lives, but being transparent here, that has rarely been me. Most of the time I feel like I’m falling more than I’m striding in my walk with Jesus. Too often I’m pulled off the path, by some simple distraction, and before I know it I’ve wandered far from where I was headed.
But know this, Jesus is with us all along the way, and though our actions may break His heart, He is more than willing to lovingly…gently lead us back onto the path of His choosing. Each day we are being saved in that we grow, and stall, and grow some more. It all makes us who we are, and Jesus patiently walks all the way along with us. It is an ongoing process.
But at the same time, we have not fully received all the benefits and blessings of salvation that will be ours when Christ’s new Kingdom is completely established. That’s our future salvation. While we can be confident of our salvation, we still look ahead with hope and trust toward that complete change of body and personality that lies beyond this life, when we will be like Christ.
Beloved, we are [even here and] now children of God, and it is not yet made clear what we will be [after His coming]. We know that when He comes and is revealed, we will [as His children] be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is [in all His glory]. 1 John 3:2 AMP
Know this, God has it all thought out. Don’t give up! Keep on striving to be all He knows you can be! And probably most importantly of all, you are not alone – He is with you all the way!
Mar 13th, 2023, Mon, 5:02 pm