In our back yard we often see a plethora of activity, particularly in the spring of the year. The mamma Robin, protecting her baby learning to fly, refuses to back off of the persistent squirrel wanting to eat seeds on the ground. With a flogging, pecking attack she runs him up a tree. The striking black and orange Baltimore Orioles, on their migration to Mexico, Central, and South America, stops in for a few days to enjoy the purple grape jelly from the jelly jar stationed among the feeders. There are five or six of them fluttering around enjoying the sweet fare and the seeds. They also love to indulge in pieces of orange. The red, white, and black Grosbeak steadily pecks away, getting as many seeds as he can from one of the feeders. A Blue Jay will swoop in and with his raucous carryings on, run them all away for a moment, but when he leaves they come right back. The bright red Cardinals, our year-round guests, join in with the group, enjoying the various seeds that have been placed before them. It seems they all know when the feeders have been freshly filled and the word gets around. With all this, the Robins are hopping around with their amazing ability to just hop over to a spot and with one peck pull up a wriggling worm. And they do this all over the yard! I can go out there and earnestly look for a worm and not find one worm. And with all this, a beautifully painted butterfly will drift onto the stage and with his calmness in being carried by the wind, and show his beauty for all to see. It is particularly entertaining in the spring for at this time the whole show has the backdrop of the blazing red roses. These two extended beds flank each side of the archway that leads to the rest of the back yard. All of this is framed all across the very back yard by the bamboo fence topped with lattice that I built when we widened the creek. The neighbor across the creek was kind enough to let me have the bamboo that we cut, and that’s what I did with that. We can all enjoy and glorify the Lord for the beauty of his marvelous creation. God is a creative God who enjoys beauty and diversity. Just studying the animals on earth attests to this fact. He did not have to do all this, but he did it to provide the “garden” for us to live in, maintain, and enjoy in God’s presence. Sin spoiled it all at one time, but Jesus took our sin upon himself. Because of Jesus we can be reconnected to the presence of God and enjoy him in all things. What a wonderful God! What a wonderful Savior! We can enjoy his goodness now and for all eternity through Jesus Christ! Thanks be to God for Jesus Christ our precious Lord!
Author: admin
preachJesus77
Don’t Walk Right Past It
I went to one of the big chain hardware stores to pick up a couple of sections of gutter, and I hurriedly picked up other needed parts, picking up an outside corner when I needed an inside corner. So, next day I went back to Home Depot and back down the aisle that the gutter was on, to get an inside corner section. Just as I approached that area, some pieces of foam caught my eye and led my thoughts of what I could use that for, as I continued to walk. As I neared the end of the aisle, I was asking myself, “Now where is that guttering? I sure thought it was on this aisle!” I walked down a couple of other aisles and said out loud, “I’m sure that gutter was on that first aisle!” I walked back to that aisle, looking intently for the gutter, and there it was – it was there all the time. I was just distracted and walked right past it. The Bible tells us just as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment, so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation (Hebrews 9: 27, 28). I was “looking” for the gutter the other day, but I got distracted and missed it. The next time around I was looking with a greater determination and found it. That is the difference between casual looking and committed looking. That is like the parable of the ham and eggs breakfast: the chicken was involved, but the pig was committed. Jesus came the first time and mighty things occurred. Jesus rose from the grave and gave us his Word and Spirit by which we can operate in this life. If we are casual believers who are “looking”, we might be involved, but we don’t see the Lord in mighty ways. We are easily distracted and walk right past his working in great power. When we are truly committed and determined to see the Lord as who he really is, he will certainly appear without sin unto salvation, healing, and deliverance. Then, in that final hour of our life, that salvation is still there, operating in grace and mercy to safely carry us over to the other side. That is why we do not want to be caught up with distractions of any kind. We want to know and enjoy his full salvation here and now, spirit, soul, and body, and enjoy his eternal salvation with him in heaven forever. There is a real heaven, and there is a real hell in the realm of the spirit. It is up to us to lay aside the distractions and get our mind on the business of making sure we are prepared to meet him in judgment. Jesus’ sacrifice will carry us through if we turn from sin and ask him into our life.
Influences
We have an open pavilion that provides cover for our two cars. It sits near our house. It is convenient to step from house to automobiles. There is a bird nest in the pavilion. Mr. and Mrs. Robin have raised their feathered family there for years. We can always tell when there is a family being raised in the nest, for there will be a generous amount of “evidence” splattered on the hood and running down the side of the car. So, the practice is to just leave the car part of the way out from under the pavilion to give the family a little space. When that family is grown and gone, it will be okay to pull all the way into the shelter of the pavilion. We are influenced and make adjustments in our lives by the activities of others. Here is another item. One time I used a shower body wash out of a bottle instead of a bar of soap. I squeezed out a generous amount on my rag, but for the life of me, I could not get a good lather up to wash in the shower. That happened more than once. I concluded that body wash was not for me. I will just stick to using a bar of soap, and, I did that for years, operating under the premise that body wash won’t cut it. I did hear some others say that they used body wash, even preferring to use it. And here is another item. For years I did not drink cold water. You think, “No cold water! That’s crazy!” Well, it was not a fetish to me. I just did not require it. The only time I would drink cold water was in a restaurant, when they would bring out that tall glass of ice filled water. I would just sip it a little. That was it. There have been changes and adjustments in my life. After the bird gets the family raised, we just park under the pavilion as we normally do. Barb bought some body wash one day and I tried it, and I love it – lathers up, smells real good, too! Now, I love the bottles of cold water I grab out of the refrigerator on a daily basis. We are all influenced by people, practices, ideas, and experiences that play out in our daily lives for years. Often these things, rob of good things. It is the same in our spiritual life. We are often influenced by people, practices, ideas, doctrines, and experiences, or lack of experience. These influences actually lord over us and dictate to us how we live and what we can have or not have. Through the work of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, God has already provided for us to have and experience good things – forgiveness, healing, and fullness of life in every way. Change your thinking, and take the good things God offers you, and enjoy life more.
Which Way Your Blades?
We have one of those wind vanes in the back yard that is two wheels mounted on the same shaft. The blades on one wheel are angled one way, and the blades on the other wheel are angled the opposite way. When the wind hits the wheels one wheel turns one way and the other wheel turns the opposite way. The harder the wind, the harder and faster the wheels turn in the opposite direction. One windy day as I sat in the back yard, my attention was drawn to the spinning wheels. As I watched them spin, I realized we can be like those spinning wheels. The same wind of the Spirit of God that causes a person to go one way, is the same wind of the Spirit that causes another person to go the other way. It depends on how the blades are angled. As God deals with us all in various ways, if we have our blades angled toward what God wants and desires then as he deals with us we go in the direction he wants us to go. If our blades are angled toward what we want regardless of what God desires, as God deals with us, we will go in the way we desire, and, the harder the wind blows the harder we go our way. Winds of adversity can cause some to harden and go away from God, while that same wind will cause another to submit to God and call upon him and receive his deliverance and direction. How your blades are turned is just the way it is. But the good news is that God can turn our blades if we so desire him to. We can live a life of being hard and bitter and complaining about every gust of wind that comes along. Or, we can look to the Lord and call upon him to change our blades. Help us to see things from his perspective. Help us to wait before him so that every wind that comes along, we will hear his Word and follow his Spirit to navigate whatever we are facing. Knowing his faithfulness, when we submit to him in this way, we can just start thanking him for the answer right up front. Keeping our blades turned to him with faith, praise, and thanksgiving processing the wind to his glory. What Jesus did for us positions us to receive the winds of God and the winds of adversity in such a way that we can live in victory in all “weather”. The blood cleanses from sin, the Spirit empowers within. It is the wind of the Spirit of God that we want to catch upon the blades of our life so we can spin in his love, his power, and his glory. We just call upon the Lord to birth a change in the direction of our blades. As we are changed by his power, we can spin in his plan for our life.
Rats
With the extreme cold weather we have had here in the south, varmints seek to find places of warmth. One morning, I walk into the kitchen and find shredded white plastic bits all over the floor. The night before, I had put a new trash bag in the receptacle, and the full trash bag I just set on the floor in front of the receptacle. Seeing the bits of plastic, I moved the filled trash bag only to find several holes in the bag with one big hole spilling out coffee grounds. “Oh me, we’ve got a rat in the house!” I proceed to set a large snap trap with peanut butter. The next morning I am lying in bed and as my eyes open to see the red digital clock reading 5:39, I hear the sound of a snap coming from the kitchen. I knew the sound. I bounce out of bed and with just my underwear on I rush to the kitchen. Sure enough, I find a rat. He had eaten the peanut butter and was lying beside the trap, still alive! Somehow, it hit him to only stun him. “Okay, so what am I going to do now? I’ve got a live rat that I’ve got to do something with quickly, and I don’t want to grab him with my bare hand; he might bite me.” I noticed in the trash receptacle a large envelope. I got the envelope and with it being used as a glove, I grabbed the rat. He started squeaking. “Okay, what am I going to do now? I’ve got this live rat in my hand and I can’t run outside in my underwear…” I notice an empty tin can in the trash. “Okay. I know what I can do.” I grabbed the can, held the rat against the wooden trap on the floor, placed the edge of the can on the neck of the rat, and applied enough pressure to hear multiple crunches. Then I knew that rat could do no harm. Now my job is to determine the entry points and address that so the rats cannot get in the house again. Sometimes we can have rats in our house spiritually – a bad perspective on life and bad attitudes.
Sometimes we can have rats in the house physically – sickness and disease. Jesus did the work so we can set the trap and deal with the “varmints” in our lives. We believe on him and call on him to undertake. We listen to what his direction is for us. We do what we must do to bring an end to the residency of the rat. It is not pleasant, but to keep from damage being sustained, we must deal with the rats. The good news is that Jesus did the work for us to be liberated in our spirit, soul, and body. This is what the gospel is all about – exterminating sin, sickness, and satanic oppression. The gospel is God’s rat trap.
The Sky is the Limit
From early in life I always wanted to play the piano. My Mom and Dad gave me a guitar when I was a boy, and I learned to play it, but somewhere along the way I started wanting to learn the piano. I think it was when the ends of my fingers would hurt so much from pressing the strings, I thought, “Boy, it would be a lot easier to just peck on a flat piano key!” When I went to college I figured this would be just the right time. They have pianos in little practice rooms, and I could take an elective and learn to play the piano! Nope! I lasted one day in class and dropped it. It was like they were talking in a different language. Too far advanced for me at that point! So years rocked by. Long story short, I got myself a nice electronic keyboard for Christmas and started out 2020 with my own electronic keyboard. It came with its own operating manual, so now, the sky is the limit! It has over 554 “voices”, or different sounds. Most of the time I use only one voice: the Grand Piano. Another voice I enjoy is the Tremolo Electric Piano for certain songs, but there is organ voices, saxophone, guitar, percussion voices, and on and on it goes with all kinds of sounds. If a person has a mind to learn it, one can do just about anything with that keyboard in the way of making and managing sounds and music. You can make a car horn honking sound, a jet plane sound, laughing, a machine gun, on and on, not to mention all the different musical instruments. It is all there for application and for the benefit of all, but the key is what I said: “If a person has a mind to learn it”. The benefit of beautiful music played and enjoyed is in direct proportion to one giving oneself to learn and apply by practice.
It is the same in the things of God. Everything we need for every situation is there for us in the Lord. It is by faith in God, by the knowledge of the Word, and by the flow of the Spirit. That is Father, Son, and Spirit. I mean, everything we need is in him. There are 8,810 promises of his provision and ability, everything we need abundantly above all we are able to ask or think, but most people give themselves to know one thing, the voice of forgiveness. And that is great – to have possession of the “keyboard” and have forgiveness. But let me tell you, the Word must be revealed to us by the Spirit, and as we give ourselves to know the flow of the Spirit by practice, by actually yielding to him personally, then, and only then, will we experience the music of God’s glory manifested through Jesus Christ. The sky is the limit if we give ourselves to know Christ.
Big Bird and the Cat
One day with Barb and one of her daughters, we were at the dining room window looking out into the back yard. Somebody said there’s a cat in the yard. I looked and found the cat that was blending in with the leaves that had fallen on the lawn. He was just sitting there in one frozen position. Then my eyes were drawn to an object which blended into the background about 7 feet in front of the cat. As I looked more intently I saw that it was “Big Bird”. That’s the name we have coined for the Great Blue Heron that hangs out in our creek. He was just standing there, like he was having a staring contest with the cat. I said, “Look at that. There’s Big Bird! That cat is trying to get Big Bird! I’ve got to video this!” As I reached for my phone the cat began to creep closer and Big Bird slowly launched up into his flight with his big wings lifting him safely in the air. We mused that the cat did not have a chance to take that big bird down, but he sure would not get anything if he didn’t try. Barb says it like this: “I had rather aim high and miss, than aim low and it hit it”. If that cat did get a hold of that bird, he probably would bring him down. That would be a loss for us. We enjoy seeing the bird hang around. If that cat was just content with mice and grasshoppers, he would not have been out there trying to get the big bird.
In the realm of spiritual things, if we desire to experience the big things found written in the Word of God, things that may seem out of reach to us, things that we might have tried to obtain but failed, then we must lay that past aside and “just go for it”. Full provision is for every believer. If we are willing to give ourselves to obtain it, God will reveal himself and help us. We don’t need to be content to just hear about what God has provided. Why drive a broken down jalopy when there has been a brand new car paid for and the keys are offered? We need to learn how to receive the keys and operate them. Jesus suffered for us by taking a beating. He went to the cross and gave himself for us as the perfect sacrifice before God. He did all this in order to take our sins away, heal our sicknesses, fill us with the Spirit with supernatural power and ability, and guide us daily in the Father’s plan for our life. He paid for all of it for us. If we don’t go for it by faith, then we don’t experience it. If that bird flew away, go again for him until you get him! Stubbornly persist to obtain God’s promises. He will perform his word.
There It Is!
The family was together for food, fun, and fellowship, and with this gathering we were having pizza. I was out on an errand. When I returned Barb asked me if I knew where the pizza cutter was. I was informed that she and Phil, a son-in-law, had looked in every drawer, the dishwasher, and in every possible place it could be, but was nowhere to be found. It was not in its usual place, so “somebody” must have put it somewhere else. “So, you’ve looked in every drawer?” I asked. “Yes” was the reply. So as I tried to remember where I might have put it, and thinking of where I would start to look I muttered, “Hmmm, pizza cutter, pizza cutter,” I pulled out the drawer that holds miscellaneous things, and there it was right there before me. “So, you looked in this drawer?” I asked. Yes, they had looked in that drawer, but failed to see it. How often we experience this! We look right at things but we don’t see them. That is why it is often helpful to get a fresh pair of eyes on a matter. We “read into” matters what we don’t know or have not experienced and we fail to “see” the true picture.
This happens with the things of God and spiritual truths. We often see things through a pre-set or pre-programmed outlook, and we can’t see what is right there before us, and, it has been there all the time. This results in missing the benefit or benefits that can be experienced and enjoyed had we embraced and experienced that truth. Even with these articles that I write, I do my best to make sure every tee is crossed and every i is dotted, but when I have Barb to proof it, she often finds things that need correction. It is always good to get another set of eyes on things. Some plain, basic truths in the Word of God are there to be embraced and experienced for maximum benefit in life and to do the will of God. The finished work of Jesus offered as a gift, the new birth, the baptism of the Holy Spirit with supernatural gifts, healing, and miracles. These are all lying in the Word in plain sight. Plus, there is a commission to take the gospel from the neighbor next door to the nations of the world with the power of God to demonstrate his mercy and goodness to all. It’s all right there in the Bible in black and white. It takes a good amount of religious brainwashing and unbelief to open the book and read it, and not see it. A good prayer to pray is “Lord, open my eyes to let me see your Word and your Way, and help me embrace it for your blessing upon my life and the lives of those around me.” Just read it, don’t read into it. Just do it, don’t doubt it. There it is!
Believing and Yielding
An avid deer hunter will scout out where the deer are, observe their habits and movements through the woods, and maybe even feed them to invite them to a certain area. When the deer season rolls around, the hunter gets his gear, goes to the location the deer are frequenting, loads his gun, and waits. Based on the evidence he has observed, this is the time and place the deer are moving, so he is loaded and ready to reap the harvest. The deer shows up just like he has observed in times past, he raises his gun, aims, and pulls the trigger. He is right on target, the deer goes down. There is meat for the table.
There is a lesson here about believing to be filled with the Spirit of God and yielding. First, the hunter wanted it bad enough to hang out where there was some manifestation. You would not find a deer in mid-town New York in a fenced in apartment complex. You don’t find the Spirit of God where religious people and systems have him fenced out. Then, in his season, he makes personal preparations and goes to that place to obtain what he is looking for. Once in that place, and when what he desires shows up, he believes that if he will raise his gun and fire, he will get the deer. It would be crazy to get to that point and sit there and say to himself, “the Lord is going to give me a deer” and never raise his gun and fire. When you are hungry for the things of God, and you desire all God has for you, and you have seen that he can be real in your life with supernatural power, and you ask and believe, there is still something else for you to do. In faith, with your eyes on the target, you raise your gun and fire! Don’t just sit there! Act on your faith! Jesus said in Luke 11:9-13 if you will ask the Father for the Spirit to fill your life, he won’t disappoint and give you something other than the Holy Spirit of God, which comes complete with a supernatural prayer and worship language. That way, when you don’t know how to pray, you will have a supernatural weapon in your arsenal to help you. Once you have observed the truth of it in the Word, desired it, asked for it, and you are “sitting on the stand waiting”, know the Spirit of God is with you, in your place. Raise your gun and fire! Open your mouth, give it breath, trusting God to fill you with his power and gifts. Just like on the deer stand, if you believe you can get that deer by pulling the trigger, then do it. Keep pulling the trigger until it goes down. The things of God operate by faith and action. God’s part has been accomplished through Jesus Christ. Now, continue to do your part.
Keep This in Mind
“Keep this in mind…” is a phrase we often use when passing along important information to others. Sometimes it is helpful to have a physical thing, something tangible, to help us remember important stuff. We have a little oval ornamental fishpond with a fountain measuring 29” x 49” that I built in our front yard. We have had goldfish in it for years. Right now we are down to only two being in there. But from time to time, due to evaporation, I have to add water. I also run water to overflow it from time to time to flush it to make it fresh and clear. There have been times I have run the water hose to it to flush it and gone about my business and forgotten I had it running full blast. Several hours later when it was remembered, need I say, the pond was extremely clear and the lawn was very well watered, which was reflected on the next month’s elevated water bill. So, I wrote myself a note on a piece of paper, “Water Running”. I keep that note by the back door. Anytime I turn that water hose on to add water or flush the pond, I get that note and I carry it around with me in hand. I don’t put it in my pocket and I don’t lay it down. If I have to lay that note aside to do anything, that thing just does not get done right then. The note stays in hand. This physical, tangible thing keeps me reminded the water is running and it must be tended to. Otherwise, I will end up wasting a lot of good water and it will cost me.
The Lord gave us a one-time physical thing to do when we commit our lives to him – be baptized in water. He gave us an on-going thing to do to keep us reminded of what he has done for us, to keep us flushed spiritually clean and to keep us healthy and whole – take communion. It is a physical, tangible thing we are to do to remember his broken body given for our sicknesses, and his shed blood given for our sins. We are reminded that he came to take our sicknesses and our sins away. With respect and reverence to what he did for us, we are to honor him by appropriating his work and sacrifice by faith so we can receive the benefit unto the praise and glory of his name. He said “as often as you…” do this thing, not specifying how often to take communion (1 Corinthians 11: 23-33). So, I take it every morning. I carry it in memory daily. I break a cracker and take a sip of juice reminding me that he took a beating to make me healthy and he sacrificed himself to make me holy. By faith in Jesus Christ, I can continue to carry out his work living in the healing presence of God.