Assurance, Devotions, Motivation, Personal, Ramblings

Awaiting a new beginning

Colossians 3:9-10 “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.”

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In California, winter snow is delegated to the high mountains. The stark contrast of white is seen from the valley and is a welcome sight knowing the coming summer will have enough water. Winter is the far edge of spring. At this point in my life, I too am at the far edge of my beginning. At this time of year, I listen to the rain rhythmically on my roof. The leaves have been raked, and all else has been put away for protection. In the summer we pray for rain.  In winter we pray for sunshine.

Nevertheless, with winter comes a promise of spring. Spring is putting off the quiet for the new.  I look forward to the spring.  It is about pressing on to bigger and better things. I am not exaggerating when I say last year was tough. As I move on with my life, I often must stop and remember to cleanse my mind from the negative and fill it with the wonder, splendor, grace, and mercy that pours from the creator.  Renewal in the knowledge of my image moving toward the image of Jesus.

Devotions, Personal, Ramblings

Baptized in a creek

Romans 6:4 “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”

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It seems like an eternity ago. A little creek outside Red Bluff, California became the assigned place where the church gathered that special day.  My church had come to see, among a few others, a brash, loud, red-headed kid be baptized. It was a public display of my faith. The word baptized just means to be well-wetted.  I was dunked for what seemed an eternity and up out of the water I came sputtering and coughing.  I had forgotten to hold my nose.  An outward sign of an inward change in my life.  It was giving up on the past forever.  It was cleansing of my soul.  Clean for a new life, a life worth living. A life with an objective.  A life with hope. A life with a goal. A new life.

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Church, Devotions

Thank you church!

2 Thessalonians 1:3

We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing.”

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The church which I attend has an ongoing emphasis, “I love my Church”.  There are shirts, there are sermons, and there are continual efforts to be a church that is centered in our community. I thank God for those who are willing to be the hands and feet of Jesus in our world. Faith is growing.  The expressed love for one another is exampled by sincere expressions of love and concern. I do love my Church.  It is not the building, it is not the songs we sing, it is not the lighting or even the big screens with providing the sermon points. It is a Pastor willing to do what is needed when there is a need. There is a genuine concern for those who cannot help themselves.  It is not giving up our young people to a culture that would harden their hearts. It is real and true Bible study.  It is a group of men and women who take the time to be Christian all the time. For these things that are increasing, I am thankful for the Church.

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Devotions

Hillside Thoughts A. S. K.

Matthew 7:7,8 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

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“Ask, seek, knock”, these words are all about need.  I ask because of my need.  I seek because of my need.  I knock because of my need. The very emptiness of my soul is characterized by a need to be given, found, and welcomed. It is not begging, cajoling, persuasion, or an effort to overcome reluctance.  It is an acknowledgment of the location of the supply for my soul, my life, and my best. My hope is built on nothing less than God’s supply. So, I ask with confidence and humility. So, I seek with care and application.  So, I knock with sincerity and persistence. And my needs are met.  Praise the Lord oh my soul and all that is within me, Praise the Lord.

Devotions

God in everything!

Matthew 6:33 “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.”

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I have had many jobs in my life: agriculture laborer, guard, machinery cleaner, butcher, meat cutter, janitor, pastor, IT specialist, School CIO, computer trainer, and now a sort of writer of sorts. All involve both the physical and the mental. Each required learning and unlearning, and relearning.  Nevertheless, they were not the greatest things I have done in the years I have called earth my dwelling place.  Sure, I provided a roof over my family, and we were relatively comfortable. Yet the greatest thing in my life was not survival.  I did not carry the weight of the world on my back just to endure. I have discovered, now, late in life, that seeking more than existence, but seeking the Kingdom of God was my goal from the beginning. My job was to seek.  God’s job was to provide. I can’t do God’s job for him.  All the things I have endured, enjoyed, fretted about, and had peace about, were just my way of seeking God.

Devotions

Hillside Thoughts

Matthew 6:28-30 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

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The world has become bipolar. Everything is poured into one of two buckets.  Everything seems to be either good or bad. There is no middle ground allowing reasoning. One bucket is much larger than the other.  The smaller of the two is filled with the good, pure, lovely, heartwarming, and beautiful.  But these wonderful things barely cover the bottom of the bucket. The sides of the bucket are rarely wet. It is too easy to give in to negativity. It is hard to see the good in the world. The hilltop lecture is telling me to be more cognizant of the beauty of life. God loves beauty.  He created beauty. I may not as well adorned as Solomon or seen as beautiful in your eyes.  Yet, God delights in the adornment he supplies.  I am a new creature born in beauty before God.  It is filling my good bucket today.  God supplies me with everything I need to do what God has for me today.

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Devotions

Doubt

“Matthew 6:26  “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?”

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God knows. Our heavenly father knows. HE cares, He loves, and He wants the best for me. Yet in everyone’s life come doubts. Doubts are ok. Doubts are a part of living.  I can easily doubt my own ability or even the ability of our government to control itself.  Doubt comes to us wrapped up as a feeling. Doubts are not ideal, but I can and do work through them. I can confront doubt like any other feeling.  I can let my head, my intellect grasp a promise, a truth, and the doubt slinks back into its black cave. Through acceptance of this truth, I let it push me to a better understanding.  

The issue Jesus is teaching on the grassy hillside is the negative attitude spewing forth out of doubt. Anxiety and worry are simply symptoms that you are too close to the world and not close enough to God.  He knows your needs. I must focus on the provision of God.  I am too valuable to sow, reap and stow the cares of the world.

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Devotions, Personal, Prayer

Simple is better

Hillside Thoughts

Matthew 6:7-8 “And when you are praying, do not use thoughtless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.”

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Most of the time the shortest prayers have the most prayer in them. They are to the point. They are not filled with repetitious addressees to whom the prayer is made.  “I thank you Lord, because Lord, you are Lord of all and Lord can you, Lord, help me out…. Lord?” Quality of prayer is much more honest than vast quantities of platitudes, clichés, and highly evolved formulas. Truth, not length is the message here. God is not deaf or forgetful, and neither does he delight in the number of words spoken.  It is sheer deceit to go on and on and on and on.  When you pray, be simple, and make your request known not because God needs to know but because you need to ask.

Prayer is a spiritual and intellectual approach of the mind of man to the mind of God. We are not here to add to God’s knowledge or even dictate divine will.  Prayer follows a simple formula: confession, praise and petition.  Nothing else is needed.

When you pray, pray and let it just be that.

Culture, Devotions, Life

Today is the day to do what is expected

Hillside Thoughts for Thursday – Day 279 of the year 2022 – October 6

Matthew 5:43-48 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

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Imagine for a moment what our world would be like if just the Christians stopped fighting. Think for a moment where every Christian on your block would reveal themselves by caring for the less fortunate. What would be like if two billion redeemed by the blood Christians, conformed to God’s intent? Would it be a wonderful blessing to begin to do what Jesus asked us to do by showing unconditional love, unbounded kindness, and unlimited grace to all?

If we belong to God, the God of grace, there is a mandate for us to become a people of grace. That is how we can imitate God. It is being the extension of God to everyone you encounter today.  Just do it and begin a wave of Jesus to all.

Church, Culture, Devotions, Mercy

A little further!

Hillside Thoughts for Wednesday – Day 278 of the year 2022 – October 5

Matthew 5:38-42

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.”

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Is Jesus suggesting that I must allow the evil in this world to triumph? Am I to assume the role of victim in any encounter with someone who would do me harm? Is all that I own subject to anyone who wants to borrow it? This teaching of Jesus is tough.  I don’t want my cheek slapped. I don’t want to give my shirt away.  I don’t want to go the extra mile.  I don’t want to lend my favorite fishing pole to a clutz. There must be something more here than a radical reaction to an offense.

The culture in which we live remains resolute in its ability to accomplish much. There are many things the secular world can do better than the church. There is a place for government to do things the individual cannot.  Industry can build a car without being Christian. But there is one thing the world around you cannot do.  That thing is the offer of grace. Jesus was saying we are to be different from our culture or government or industry.  We have the ability to look beyond the requirements and need to go a little further and be grace and mercy.

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The Study of God and Life