I just saw a picture posted on Facebook that has given me the idea for today’s post.  It was a picture of a cloudy sky with the clouds shaped into fingers pulling back an opening in the clouds.

The picture reminded me of an incident that happened while I lived in Kodiak, Alaska.  The pastor of our church there and his wife had a daughter who was away at college.  She was flying home for Christmas break and was nearly home.  While her parents were waiting in the small Kodiak airport her plane was circling above them waiting for an opening in the clouds.  They finally announced they would make one more pass and then  head back to Anchorage before they ran out of fuel.  That meant that their daughter would have to spend the night in Anchorage.  Her parents prayed that God would open the clouds and allow the plane to land.  A friend of mine told me about it later.  He was standing outside and he watched the clouds open, the plane flew through and the clouds closed back up.  What an exciting answer to prayer!

Years later I worked with a woman who said that she never asked God for anything! I was so shocked I didn’t know what to say.  I have asked God numerous times to help me find my keys, and I have to say He is generally pretty helpful.  Just recently He helped me find a Redbox movie that desperately needed to be returned.  Both my husband and I had looked several times through the papers and bills stacked on the cabinet to no avail.  Finally after searching through everything, lifting every single paper and envelope, looking behind everything, I offered a quick prayer for help to find the movie, I looked down and there it was….laying right on top of everything!  How does God do this kind of stuff!?  Why does God do this kind of stuff?  In the whole scheme of running the universe what is it to God to help me find my keys or a long over due Redbox movie?   Luke 12:7 says that “Even every hair on your head has been counted.”  Just think of it, God runs the whole universe and He desires a relationship with you so badly that he makes His presence known to us in so many various ways.  God doesn’t just want to help you find your keys, He wants to do so many more bigger things for you.  We just need to ask him!  He desires the most and the best for us.  Jeremiah 32:17 assures us that nothing is too hard for God: “I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?”  I have discovered that nothing is too hard for the mighty right arm of the Lord!

Richard looked out his front window every day to see a rocky, sandy yard devoid of anything green except for a few weeds that persisted in coming up despite his faithfully applying weed killer.

One day Richard decided he had enough of the dry desert sand and wanted to see beautiful green plants growing in his yard.  He drove to his local plant nursery and talked to one of the employees about what he could do to change his yard.  The plant expert showed Richard the most desert hardy plants available.  Once established they would do fine without any added water.  Unfortunately,  Richard didn’t like how those plants looked, he preferred the plants that required more water.  So the plant man explained how Richard would need to add soil amendments to his desert soil and put in an underground watering system for the plants.  That seemed like an awful lot of work to Richard and expensive as well so he nodded his head in agreement with the expert but decided to just buy the water dependant plants and put them in without the amendments or water system.  He had seen such beautiful plants in other peoples yards and it certainly didn’t look like they had worked that hard to make them grow.

Richard thanked the plant man for helping him and then proceeded to push a cart through the nursery picking out the plants he wanted.  He checked out and hurried home to transplant his new acquisitions.  The ground was hard and dry and digging a hole deep enough to put the plants in proved difficult.  Some of the holes he dug weren’t quite big enough to cover all the plant roots but he shoved the plants in as far as they would go and moved on.   The sun was getting hotter by the moment and he was ready to go inside to the air-conditioned house.

After dropping all the plants into the ground he went inside to cool down and grab a cold drink.  He sat down in his favorite chair and quickly dozed off after all the hard work of planting.  When he awoke the next morning he excitedly remembered his new plants.  He looked outside in anticipation only to be disappointed by the sight of very wilted plants.  He needed to get to work,  but he quickly sprayed them with a little water before jumping in his car and speeding down the freeway.  The temperatures reached a record high that day and when  Richard arrived home very few of the plants had survived.  Richard threw in the towel and angrily stomped into the house.  He wouldn’t bother watering what was left, it would just be a waste of time anyway.  His conscience pricked him a little, maybe he should have spent the money on soil amendments and a watering system after all or just gone ahead and bought the drought resistant plants the plant expert had recommended.  He looked outside and sighed deciding that gardening wasn’t for him.  He just didn’t have a green thumb like  those few people who had lush green yards.

We can all have a beautiful growing connection with God if we just trust Him enough to obey Him.  Proverbs 3: 5-6 tells us, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart; and lean not upon your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your path.”  And Jesus tells us in John 14:23,  “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching.” 

You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.  Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD, the LORD, is the Rock eternal.  Isaiah 26:3

Let Him have all your worries and cares, for He is always thinking about you and watching everything that concerns you.  1 Peter 5:7

For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.  1 Corinthians 1:25 

I have a confession to make; My tags have expired on my car and I am driving it around anyway. It’s not as though i haven’t tried to register my car, but the state I’m in requires my title, which of course I have managed to misplace so I have had to apply for a lost title.  And thus began my journey to being a complete and total Nincompoop!

I knew that I needed to get my car registered so I filled out the correct forms to replace a lost title, had them notorized by a nice lady at our bank and sent them off to Colorado.  The state of Colorado sent them back formally stating on official looking paper that they didn’t have my title. Of course they didn’t have my title.  After all I had bought the car in Alaska.  I once again filled out the correct forms, had them notorized at the same bank by the same nice lady.  I put them in the mail and this time addressed the envelope to Alaska.  Then I waited.  The State of Alaska also sent my carefully done paperwork back to me.  Somehow or other I had gotten the VIN number wrong.  Once again I filled out the correct paperwork and took it to the same woman at the same bank to be notorized.  I took my paperwork home, put it in the special pink envelope provided to expedite the process once it arrived in their office and I once again put it in the mail and sent it off to the faraway land of Alaska.  Weeks later I received the paperwork again. This time I had failed to sign with the last name listed on the title.  I filled out the correct paperwork took it to the same woman at the same bank and had it notorized once again, this time signing with the needed last name.  I stamped the envelope and put it in the mail to Alaska, hoping all would go well this time but silently wondering what else could go wrong.  It didn’t take too long to find out.  One day while checking the mailbox I found an envelope from the DMV in Alaska.  I opened it with excitement and trepidation only to find out that this time I still didn’t have my title because I also  needed a statement from my loan company that the vehicle was paid for.  I groaned.  It had been over 14 years since we had bought the car and my ex-husband had taken care of the paperwork.  I called Toyota.  No, they couldn’t find any records so they gave me another number to call.  No, they hadn’t done the loan either.   I groaned again.  I don’t have much patience for these kinds of phone calls.  My husband actually had the audacity to laugh at my predicament!  I needed to make another phone call.  But, I did deduct from the previous results of my two phone calls that if the loan hadn’t been made through Toyota then we had used our Credit Union.  I looked at the clock, did the mental calculations for time change and sighed in relief that they were still open.   I called them, talked to a very nice girl who searched the archives and found the needed information.  She sent it to me immediately and I received it in less than a week. Things were looking good. I still had two weeks until my tags expired and if I used the special pink envelope I had once again been given to expedite the paperwork, I just might get my registration done before it expired.  I once again went into the bank and the same kind woman agreed to notorize it and also took the time to  look at the list of requirements  to make sure I had done everything correctly.  While she was very nice I’m sure she was beginning to wonder at my lack of competence.  I put it in the special pink envelope and sent it off once again.  Just today…(three weeks later) I received the paperwork back once again.  This time despite taking it to the bank and the woman going through the extra work of reading all the requirements, she had forgotten to notorize it.

I once again returned to the bank, the look on the face of the woman at the bank is hard to describe, but I could well imagine what she was thinking when she saw me through her office window.  She gladly notorized it for me and I sent the special pink envelope with all the correct information in it back to Alaska.  I recently received my title!  I am so excited.  Now I can go down to the DMV and register my car and no longer have to religiously do the speed limit or hope a police officer will not pull up behind me at a stoplight.

Sometimes doing the right thing seems incredibly impossible!  We try and try and it all seems to go wrong anyway.  I used to think I was a fairly intelligent person, but this experience (as well as some others) have made me realize that I’m not as “together” as I would like to think I am.

The same theme can be applied to our spiritual lives.  Just like the rich young ruler in yesterday’s blog post, we think because we have kept all the rules we are doing pretty good.  But then God has a way of opening our eyes to show us where we need to change in order to be true followers of God.  At that point in time we have the opportunity to change direction and keep our eyes wide open and on Jesus or close our eyes and turn away, continuing to believe we are okay just like we are, despite the glaring error of our mistakes.

Jesus said, “The things that are impossible for people to do are possible for God to do.”  Luke 18:27

The rich young ruler who came to Christ and asked, “What can I do to be saved?”  received an unexpected answer.  Jesus told him that he needed to give up all and follow Him.  The rich young ruler believed that he would be saved based on his accomplishments.  He had kept the commandments since he was a child.  But Jesus said that the young man needed to give up his accomplishments and his riches and follow Him.  Jesus was asking the young man to depend on Jesus for everything.   It seems like most of the time we want God to help us a little while we do our best.  We feel that  if we just pray more and try harder, we can do it.  Unfortunately, we generally end up in despair, living a life without joy, strength or victory.  That illustrates the first part of the text, “For with people it is impossible”.  When we can finally admit that we are utterly helpless, we need to move on to the second part of the text, “But with God all things are possible.”   Philippians 2:13 tells us that “It is God which works in you, both to will and to do.”  We need to understand that when God has renewed the will, God will give the power to accomplish what that will desires.  

Trying harder is about as futile as trying to fill a cup with water that has had the bottom removed.  We can stand there and hold the cup under the water faucet all day but it will not fill up with the water.  We can even try holding our hand under the cup, but by that point in time we would be able to do nothing else but stand there and hold the cup with both hands.  Our selfishness in trying to get to heaven on our own without giving our lives up to God gets us nowhere but standing there serving ourselves.  In the meantime the cup will still never really get full.

On the other hand if we take a cup that is whole and put it under the running water it will soon be filled up.  At the same time we don’t even have to stand there and hold it, we can just set it down and go do other things.  If we give our entire lives to God then He is able to fill us up with His good works and as long as the cup stays under the running water it will continue to flow over.

  “Unto him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think…. unto him be glory.” Ephesians 3:20

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.  2 Corinthians 4:18

Kids love to play pretend.  When my oldest daughter was three she had an imaginary friend for a while that she talked to throughout the day.  And now my five-year old can play for hours in her room with her dolls pretending all sorts of fun and adventurous things that in real life would just never happen.

 Even as adults we don’t always outgrow playing pretend.  It may take a slightly different form but we sometimes imagine the perfect life;  a beach house, fast car, no problems, everyone likes us, our boss evaporates into thin air and is never seen again, every day is sunny but not too hot, the grass never grows too long and we don’t have to spend our Sunday afternoon mowing it, there are no bills, and we can eat as much cheese cake and chocolate as we like, never exercise, and still look like the model on the cover of the latest fitness magazine. 

Now living in “Lala Land” may get us put into a psyche ward, but 2 Corinthians 4:18 tells us to “fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.”  And Romans 8:24 tells us that “hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has?”

Our prayers to God are our hopes and desires, and hopefully we have spent enough time with God that His desires are the desire of our hearts.  “May He give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.” Psalm 20:4

Therefore I say unto you, whatever things you desire, when you pray, believe that you will receive them, and you shall have them.  Mark 11:24

It is the accepted idea of today  that we need more ‘self-love’.  But here is a thought to ponder;  God is love.  What does that mean?   It means that if I want love I must seek God, for God is love.

Think about this for a moment, little children don’t worry about whether they love themselves or not.  They love their parents and as long as they are assured of their parents love, they are happy.

Christ said, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:35)   How can you love yourself if you hate the person you go to church with? Or despise your neighbor?  Or won’t speak to your parents because of injustices they have done to you?  What causes such coldness in our feelings to others?  Self.  We are so full of self that we are appalled to be treated so horribly by others.  If we are to have the love of God truly living in our hearts then there must be death to self.  How can a man be dead to sin, if he is not dead to self?

If we are full of love for the Father, He will make sure we are full of love for others.   That is our greatest need; to accept the love of the Father.  For many of us that can be the hardest thing to do: to simply allow God to really love us.   It can be scary.  It can even at times be painful.  But without it our hearts will always be empty and searching for fulfillment somewhere.  To have a true and lasting self-acceptance/self-love we first need for our hearts to be emptied of both and then allow it to be filled with love for the Father, only then will we really have a peace that passes understanding.  Most people seem to seek self-love as something they can do for themselves, when in reality we can only accept who we are when we allow God to fill us with His love.

Yesterday I stood on the beach while the waves washed over my feet.  This was a new experience for me as the beaches in Alaska are generally a little too chilly to enjoy standing  barefoot on them.  As the water washed over my feet the sand washed out from underneath them.  If I continued to stand in one place the sand eventually began to cover my feet.

The Bible tells us to not build our house on sandy ground.  So true.  Sometimes we build our life on lies.  But if we do that and then the waves of life crash over us,  the lies we have built our life on crash beneath us.   If we insist on staying with our lies then they eventually cover us just like the sand covered my feet.

“… I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”  John 14:6

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  John 8:31,32

Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.  Psalm 25:5

My husband is a teacher and this year he was a Senior Class Sponser.  We are currently spending a few days with the Seniors at a beach house on the beach.  There is a botanical gardens nearby so since I love flowers I decided to take a few hours and see the gardens.  I checked the weather forecast and dressed accordingly.  When we started out on the 25 mile drive to the gardens I was a little worried I hadn’t dressed warmly enough or that despite the 10% chance of rain forecasted that it would rain.  But the further I drove the more the weather resembled the forecasted weather.

The Bible tells us how to live life.  But so many times what it tells us goes against everything we can see and how everyone else believes life should be lived to get ahead in this life.  But, if we step out in faith and believe and then live how the Bible tells us to the closer we get to our destination the more we are able to see that what the Bible says about how we should live is right.

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.  Hebrews 11:1

I woke up while it was still dark out this morning and desperately wanted to go back to sleep.  I did finally manage to doze off just before it got light and slept for a short while.  I dreamt an odd dream.  My husband and I were outside with our five-year old daughter.  There were people milling about and there was a dangerous lion roaming about that everyone was worried about.  We bought our five-year old a gun so she could shoot the lion.  We walked over to the lion with her, he was just sitting there, and just as she was getting ready to shoot the lion we saw a sweet little snow-white lamb standing next to the lion.  All of a sudden we said, “Shoot the lamb, shoot the lamb!”  Then I woke up.

I woke up thinking, “What!?!?  Shoot the Lamb!?”  But then I thought; Isn’t that just like sin?  We go out armed to shoot the dangerous evil lion and instead say, ‘Shoot the lamb, shoot the lamb!’

Even so faith, if it has not works, is dead, being alone.  James 2:17

Imagine a God who gave you everything you wanted every time you asked Him.  Most of us would like a God like that.  But what would happen if that actually occurred?  We would be so surrounded by self that we couldn’t see anything else.  In a way we would be like a man who could only breath in.

Imagine on the other hand though a man who has decided to only do good works in his life.  Someone who always just gives and gives and gives.  Eventually this type of person has nothing left to give.  This would be like a man who only breathes out.

To live we need to breathe in and breathe out.  We need to go to God and breath in His gifts and then in order to continue to live the life that God has given us we need to breath out the life God has shared with us to others.

Breathe in, breathe out.  Breathe in, breathe out.

“You heavens above, rain down righteousness; let the clouds shower it down. Let the earth open wide, let salvation spring up, let righteousness grow with it; I, the LORD, have created it.  Isaiah 45:8