Our Blog

As the year is coming to a close we all start thinking and planning what the following year is going to look like. We set goals to grow and think on the things in our lives that we would be better off without. We tend to want to leave the past behind to create a better future. We say things like “out with the old and in with the new”. While there are things in all of our lives we would be better off without, we must appreciate the process of going through all the experiences of the past years. If we were to be truthful with ourselves the tough (or dirty) things are the foundation to our growth. Today’s culture tends to think of tradition as an old way of living. Products are made to be temporary and leisure is an ever new adventure.  The moments that are imbedded in my mind are the moments that were repeated over and again. The ever present orange in the bottom of my Christmas stocking as a child and the vacation spot we visited every year with my family. Or the bedtime prayer I said every night with my grandchildren when they were growing up, tradition. The matriarch in my family, my mother-in-law went to be with our Lord a few years back. Her Thanksgiving stuffing has created a fun tradition in my family. Every year we all call each other to see what the other does to recreate her stuffing all believing that our version is the closest to hers. It keeps her spirit alive during one of the most memorable times of tradition in our family.

What an old thing to say, right? Well, you have to know your history to understand it. Bathwater was work before you could turn on a faucet. It was shared and the baby was the last in. Make sense now? The phrase is used to say; be sure to hold on the valuable when you discard what is not needed any longer.

In Matthew 5:17 Jesus said “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” What He was teaching was that the past was to be the precursor for Him to come and to give life eternal to us who believe. Without the Law we would not realize the need for a Savior. Studying the Old Testament may not be as exciting as the message of the New Testament but it is essential for us to truly know our Lord God and to truly know our own hearts. It is so with our past as well. Without the past good and bad, we would not realize we need growth or change. This year let’s try looking back with a grateful heart for all the days of our past and to all the people, ones still in your life and the ones that have moved on, that have helped shape you into who you are still becoming. Happy New Year!

Every year during the summer our local fire company raises funds by setting up a donation stop outside the fire house that happens to be on the way to our local grocery store. And yup, every year I get caught unaware and I am scrambling to find a few dollars to donate and away I go with my “little red flower” they give me as a token of their appreciation. I hang my “little red flower” on my rearview mirror feeling good about my small sacrifice and off I go to fulfill my grocery list. As I’m walking up and down the grocery store aisles I’m prompted to remember the volunteers, then about how hot it is outside. How each of them has devoted their Saturday afternoon to their cause and I am again prompted to buy a case of cold water for them. Now it was out of obligation that I donated the few spare dollars. OK, don’t judge me. We have all been in a place where we are presented with a situation that we comply with, out of obligation, right? But as for the water, no one was the wiser if I chose not to obey the small voice, no one but me and the Lord.

Here is where I would remind you of 1 Samuel 15:22; “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than to sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.”

In the book of 1 Samuel we see the Lord anointed Saul to be the King of the Israelites and sent him into battle. He gave him strict instructions through Samuel about the battle. He was to spare no living thing. Saul did not obey His instructions. Instead he saved everything that he deemed good and destroyed everything that he despised and was weak. He then set up a monument in his own honor and used the best of the goats and the cattle from the plunder and sacrificed them to the Lord. Although the Lord is the One that instituted sacrifices, this was not what the Lord told Saul to do and the Lord was grieved and regretted making Saul the king of the Israelites. 1 Samuel 16:7 reminds us that the Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. When our heart is in unison with the Lord we will be pleasing to our Lord and blessed in our obedience.

We spend a great deal of time and effort to present ourselves to the world in a certain light. We use our time and talents to obtain wealth and knowledge to better our standing and security. We use our financial blessings to have the perfect style and the possessions to represent how we want the world to see us. That could mean a mansion or a tiny home, a Jaguar or Subaru. We spend a certain amount of time each day “working on our image” preparing to leave the house. That could look like a movie star or business person or maybe pajamas.  There is no condemning anyone for this. It is the way of this world and how we choose to live in it. This is how we identify with the world we live in. We use the 5 senses we were given; sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch to create our own image, and then proceed to make judgements on a person’s heart by the way they show up.

Laodicea was the wealthiest of the seven cities, known for its banking industry, manufacture of wool, and a medical school that produced eye salve. But the city at one time had a problem with its water supply. The water was carried by an aqueduct that carried the water from a hot spring. By the time the water reached the city it was not hot or refreshingly cold, it was lukewarm.

The Apostle John writes in Revelation 3:14-22 these words of the Lord to the church of Laodicea.  ‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other. So, because you are lukewarm – neither hot nor cold – I am about to spit you out of My mouth. You say ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich *(real spiritual treasures); and white clothes to wear *(His righteousness), so you can cover your shameful nakedness: and salve to put on your eyes *(medicine from Him to heal their eyes so they could see the truth), so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with Me. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with Me on My throne, just as I overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

You see here the Lord is not condemning His people for their wealth or high standing, He is warning them to take a look at their heart. Christ was showing them that true value was not in material possessions, but in a right relationship with God. The church had become luke-warm and thus distasteful and repugnant. The believers didn’t take a stand for anything: indifference has led to idleness. By neglecting to do anything for Christ, the church has become hardened and self-satisfied, and it was destroying itself. There is nothing more disgusting than a halfhearted, in-name-only Christian who is self-sufficient. Don’t settle for following God halfway. Let Christ fire up your faith and get you into the action!

*parentheses are mine