Year: 2011

 

It’s hard to make yourself cry, to produce tears. In movie-making, when the actress has to cry, I guess she has to think of something very sad to make herself cry, or they put drops of water in her eyes just before they start filming to make it look like she is crying.

When I first returned to the Lord, I found myself unemotional during the most holy portion of Sunday morning worship. I cried out to God, “Why can’t I cry? Why am I so hard-hearted? Please, God, return my tears. Help me feel your presence and be able to cry in your presence again like when I was young.” I wanted to cry but had no tears.

Physically speaking, tears are necessary for the health of your eyes. A medical condition called dry eye causes loss of tears, so that the eyes are painful and vision is often blurred. If your eyes don’t produce their own tears, you can use artificial tears. Or according to a commercial on TV, if you have been using artificial tears two or more times a day, you might be a good candidate for a prescription that enables your eyes to make their own tears.

During that time I just continued a lifestyle of Christian service—reading the Bible, attending church, and praying—but I was always dry-eyed. No tears. Oh, occasionally I might squeeze one or two drops out. I was crying on the inside, dry on the outside, but I never gave up.

Then one Sunday I suddenly realized that I was crying. Not only was my heart touched, but my physical body was responding too. And beginning that day the Bible began to open up to me. My spiritual vision cleared and I was able to see and understand things that had been a blur to me before.

“Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.” Psalm 126: 5-6 NKJV

God used the natural tears to open my spiritual eyes.

 

My first set of china in 1969 was from a gas station, 50 cents for each place setting with a tank of gas. My first set of eating utensils could hardly be labeled “silverware.” It was stainless steel, no design, functional.

I was never in that class of society where you register at the department store in the mall and get china, silver, and crystal at the bridal shower. My bridal showers netted bath towels, sheets, a mop and broom, and plastic ware, which I really could use.

I have two sets of china in the china cabinet, another set of dishes, (not china) in the kitchen cabinet, plus the Corelle dishes we eat off of every day. I don’t even remember what I have packed away in the garage from our move almost eight years ago, but obviously I don’t need them very badly.

I am learning as I grow in the Lord that He was right when He said in Luke 12:15NKJV, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.”

Ask the rich man dying with cancer. His riches mean nothing to him. He would give all he had to be able to live longer.

I am more than the car I drive, the house I live in, the china I eat my meals from. I am an heir of God and joint heir with Jesus Christ. I have a home, a mansion, in heaven waiting for me, when the time comes that He calls me home.

The Lord gives me what I need here on this earth to live the life that He has laid out for me and I must learn, as Paul did, to be content in every situation.

Paul said in Phil.4:12, “I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound.  Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.”

My possessions do not define who I am.

 We’ve been told we can’t turn back the clock but on the island of Tonga, that isn’t true. You can go back to yesterday. However yesterday will never be the same, and some things can never be changed.

When you cross the International Date Line, today becomes tomorrow or yesterday. When traveling west to east, for instance, from the island of Tonga to the island of Samoa, which takes two hours by plane, the passenger arrives yesterday, the day before he left. And going from east to west causes a passenger to arrive tomorrow.

Passage of time has been one of the hardest issues for a science fiction writer to deal with. Writing about space travel used to require the reader to suspend his knowledge of science and enter the land of make-believe, but now many of the things sci-fi writers have written about have proven to be scientifically true.

“Weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning.” Psalms 30:5 NKJV.

When I am crying my eyes out, it seems as though morning will never come. I cannot see the morning sunshine for the clouds of depression hanging over me. Sadness swallows up day after day, leaving me with no tomorrow, only yesterdays. My imagination runs wild, driving me crazy with “what might have been,” but nothing is certain.

Questions of regret. “If I could just go back in time and take back those words.” “We were so happy back then. What happened?” “She was too young to die.” “How could he do that to me?”

But Mama always said, “time changes things.” My Father God is the God of time too. He can roll back time like a scroll and in an instant of time He can undo the damage that was done. You will always have the memory of what happened, but God will remove the hurt in your heart, if you will trust Him to do it. Time is no match for a great God like ours.  

 Remember,  morning is always coming and joy comes in the morning.

A cactus is a very strange plant. Some varieties look just like rocks; others are covered with stickers. Some of them are downright ugly. Others actually look dead. You seldom see one bloom.

Cactus or other succulents store up all the moisture they can get, then use it up during the dry season. Sometimes the dry season will last for years. But the cactus, though barely alive, somehow manages to survive on a very limited amount of moisture. After one of these long stretches of drought, when the spring rains finally come, the cactus bursts into bloom using all its energy, sending forth its seeds just at the right time for them to sprout and reproduce.

When the spring rains come, providing the desert with much needed moisture, those cactus that look like rocks, the ugly, thorny, dead-looking cactus, suddenly bloom. The desert, the wilderness, the barren waste, where only cactus grow, will blossom like a beautiful English rose garden.

The “rain” of the Holy Spirit is here now. We have lived through hard times, barely surviving on just a little moisture, just enough to stay alive. Some of us are dead looking, thorny, ugly, but we have survived and now it is time to bloom.

Jesus told us that the Holy Spirit is like a river of living water pouring out of our innermost belly, John 7:38. He has caused the airwaves, the magazines, bookstores to be flooded with His Spirit. There are more Christian books, songs, magazines, TV programs, and movies being produced than ever in the history of the world. Every ladies’ magazine has an article on spirituality in it. The Internet is being taken over by Christians.

“The desert shall blossom like a rose.” Isaiah 35:1

The drought has ended. The spring rains have come. What has God given you to do in the last “rain of the Holy Spirit”? It is time to get the Word of God out where it can reproduce.

It is time to bloom.

Right after it snowed, I set a bird feeder on my potting bench where I can see it from my desk. I put  a camera on a ledge hoping to take a picture of a pair of cardinals but haven’t had any success yet. Birds must have very sharp eyes to detect movement, because they fly away when I reach over to snap the shot.

My yard is also full of bird food. I have shrubs and bushes around the foundation with berries and seeds. I let the asparagus go to seed and haven’t cut it back.

As a bird watcher and feeder, I’m in good company. God reserves the berries and seeds of the fields so birds have something to eat in winter. He looks down from heaven, watching His creation, waiting to see if the cardinal pair will show up to have their picture taken. He searches His reference database for the name of that little bird with the striped top-knot and stripes on his wings. He must get great joy watching their antics.

 I spent many years seeing birds from a distance but now that I have the bird feeder closer to my window, I can see each bird as an individual. The non-descript gray birds have suddenly shown their colors. I’ll have to find my North America Wildlife reference book to identify them.

If God provides food for the birds, He will surely see that I have what I need to eat. If the cost of a loaf of bread goes to $5, God will provide the $5 for me to buy it. We say, “I remember when the cost of bread was $.50 a loaf” and now we pay $2.50 for a loaf, and God has provided the money to pay for it.

“Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” Matthew 6: 26 NKJV

You each individually are of more value than many sparrows and God will see that you have what you need.

 

After all these years of working outside the home, sometimes I feel like I never want to leave my house again. I started working as a waitress when I was 15 years old. In 2003, I retired from the phone company after 32 years and, after a year off, I started my own computer consulting business, now my 46^th year of work.  

Last week when the weatherman forecast a few inches of snow, I was so thrilled. Yes! Please God! Let it snow, and I’ll hibernate, cook stew, sit in my recliner, and knit. Then it occurred to me that while I was praying to be snowed in so I would have an excuse not to leave the house,  others were praying God would hold off the snow so the roads would be clear for driving.

One prays the rain doesn’t come so they can go sunbathing at the lake, while the farmer prays for rain.

We pray for healing for one who’s in the hospital while she is praying for God to take her on home.

Who does God hear? Which prayer does He answer?

God hears and answers all our prayers and his answers are always the right answer for us. God is bigger than our prayers because He sees the big picture. He knows what is ahead.

 “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. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:11-13 NIV

His plan is not to make you happy, but to bring you joy. He doesn’t want to bring you romance, but love. He wants to bring you destiny, not just a job. He has a plan for your life, not just a work schedule. God has a place for you, not just a house. He has a family for you, not just people to hang out with.  

 God’s plan is perfect. Just keep praying and He will keep answering. Keep seeking Him with all your heart and you will find Him.