Friends

Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart.

Our lives are touched daily by people that we know and some that we don’t, but the ones who make a lasting impression are friends. I claim Jesus as my friend and I hope you will too.

The friends which we have around us are those that we have found through work or school or in other circumstances in which we find ourselves. Whether it is through an accident, military, or other types of operations which puts us together, they are the ones that we rely on and miss the most when they are absent. The length of absence doesn’t make any difference between friends, there is always some common bond between you that will be there regardless of the circumstances life throws at you.

I had such an encounter recently with a friend that I haven’t seen in almost thirty years. Yet there was a bond which spanned that time and made it seem as if it wasn’t a concern. This friend and his family are important to me in ways that they do not realize and when the patriarch of their family moved on to his heavenly home it saddened me. But, I still feel joy because of it. I know that we will see each other in Heaven and we will have an eternity of service to our Lord together.

The friendship which Jesus offers to all is closer than those which we have here during our lifetimes. As God’s word says, “ I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Deuteronomy 31:6. This is the kind of friend we need, now more than ever in these troubled times. I pray that anyone who reads this will take this message to heart and accept Jesus into their lives so that you will have a friend forever!

God can do more with you than you can

Like a potter, God can mold you to be more of Him and His likeness. I was at a revival last night and the image of a potter with an old pot came to me. It was broken, chipped, with some holes in it. The potter sat down at His wheel, brought out just enough water to dampen the clay and make it pliable again and began to work. The process was not a quick fix and it took a while but eventually a new pot emerged from the old. This one was better suited for the task that the potter had in mind. This one had a large handle which would give him a better hold on it. It also had a larger portion in which to pour the Spirit which would fill it and allow more of Him to be poured out to others. The mouth of the pot was large so that as the Spirit was being poured out more could get in and make it an endless stream coming from Him.

This is the way that God wants us to be. Useful to Him as vessels into which He can pour the essence of who He is so that we can pour Him out to the world which desperately needs Him. If there is a void in your life, allow God to fill it! You will be amazed at how much of Him can fit in there and how much more will fit as well. Our lives could be so much more rewarding because of Him and what He can do for you and through you! Please, give Him a chance. Read only one book in the Bible with prayer, specifically Romans. He will work a true miracle in your life and through you to others. Be bold for Him and there is no way He will allow you to fail in His will for your life.

Something died in me

I was prompted this morning to write about, of all things, death!  I have never experienced the death of a sister or brother through war or by evil things that men do or even by accidents, but the feelings of betrayal and loss are the same. I have a half-brother and sister and I was very worried when she was serving in the Army because she spent most of her five year enlistment in Europe and some in Iraq. God answered my prayers and protected her, somehow as only He can do.

There are many people who have lost loved ones to the evil and hateful ways of men and I am sure that they question God’s love and His divine love when things go terribly wrong. He is still there and He does care. In fact, He will avenge their deaths in ways that we cannot possibly imagine. “Vengeance is Mine, says the Lord.”

The first death that I experienced was the death of my marriage, then my grandmother and finally my mother, grandfather, and my Dad. A few years later, my mother-in-law, my son’s grandmother, died. I was questioning, searching for the answer when I came to realize that He had a plan in all of this. I did not like nor enjoy how His plan for my life worked out but after a while of prayer and crying out to Him, I came to know Him better than I ever had before. I know that death is something that we all have to come to grips with at some point in our lives, and it is not a pleasant part of life at all but it is necessary. Even the loss of someone by gun or by an accident on the highway or even by drugs is not overlooked by God. He knows when your life will end and how, unfortunately He can’t prepare our family or us for it unless we let Him.

I wasn’t ready for any of the deaths which occurred in my life, but He knew that unless I experienced them I would never grow into the person that He intended for me to be. I know, that seems to be a cruel way to cause someone to “grow-up” but even in the Bible there are times when people would die so that a new leader would be brought into their place.

Bitterness, anger, frustration, feelings of resentment, loneliness, grief, frustration….these are all feelings that we experience when someone dies before their time or before we are ready. God knows and cares about all of us and for those who were Christians, He was there to greet them when they came into His presence. The sad truth is that many people die not knowing Him, but sometimes this is the only way to get another member of the family to come to Him and God knows that. It is not pleasant and it is never easy on the family regardless of how the person died.

God loves you! Give Him a chance to show it by coming to Him and crying to Him about your hurt and your anger. The only way that these feelings will be helpful to you is if you let Jesus heal the damage they have caused in your life. There is no way to bring back the people we have lost except through our memories of them, but those memories can be much sweeter if we will talk with the One who can help. The only One who can truly help spiritually, emotionally and eternally. Give Him the chance to show just how much He cares and you will be amazed.

I don't know what I would do without Him

This may be one of those "I told you so" posts but it is true! I don't know what I would do or be without God and His Son in my life! I do remember what life was like when I had not accepted Him and it wasn't pretty or anywhere near normal. I was trying meditation, incense, Eastern religions, alcohol, drugs, etc. If it made me feel better,even the slightest bit, I gave it a shot.

Then when I did accept Him into my life, it was a long time before my life and my witness for Him became real. My spirit had changed, but my life and what others saw had not really changed that much. I would hear a little voice inside telling me that something that I was doing was wrong, but many times I pretended not to hear. I "knew" I was saved so I figured I had my "fire" insurance and I didn't need to do anything else.

Man, was I WAY off base! It took the gift of my son's birth and his questions as a toddler to wake me up to the fact that he was watching everything that I did and said. I was responsible for him and his view of a good father and I wasn't even close to being "good". I should've been much closer to God and much more dedicated to serving Him at this point but I was still a babe in Christ. After more than a decade of being saved, I was still at the same point that I was the week after I accepted Him.

God knew it was time for me to change, actually past time. So the opportunity came and I took it. There is no getting away from God because the harder you run from Him, you will run into Him just that much faster. When God decides that it is time for you to serve Him, you will, one way or another. He will use situations or people or whatever He needs to use to get you to see things His way.

Now that I have come to know Him and what He wants me to do with my life, I have learned a lot. Just reading and studying His word from the Bible has taught me about His patience and kindness. And about His love for all of us and why we are still here. There are too many days behind to worry about the days to come. The future is a mystery and today is a gift, that is why it is called the present. The past is gone, as long as we learned from it what we were supposed to learn it served its purpose.

All we have to do is serve our purpose now. Daily, you have to get up and go to school or work or somewhere. Take God with you. He is there anyway so you might as well acknowledge Him. Ask Him to help you with your problems, even the small ones. He cares enough to do that even if He is the creator of the universe! He deserves your devotion and your love just as your parents do for He formed you in the womb. He knows you better than anyone, get to know Him and you will never be alone again.