Let God’s SON Shine

Easter is about a dark Friday that took the life of God’s Son, the life of a loving innocent man, Mary’s son, the friend and leader of many. Mary felt the darkness. His friends and followers felt the darkness. They were filled with despair and helplessness. What was going to happen next? What were they to do now? Who can they turn to in their fear?

Easter Morning started out dark just as all days and then as the Sun began to rise, the slightest glimpse of light began to reveal itself. Some women (Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, Salome, Joanna and possibly more) probably filled with despair and uncertainty began to walk to the tomb where Jesus’ body was buried. They did not know of the resurrection yet. They thought they were going to be in a sad, fearful place where they were probably going to be uncomfortable in their surroundings as well as their ministry. As they walked, they realized they had a problem. They were beginning to feel helpless in the realization that they had a big stone that would hinder their purpose for going to the tomb. They continued to walk. The light of the sunrise grew in brightness until the shadows and darkness were no more. As the women approached the tomb, they realized the stone had already been rolled away. The problem the women thought they had did not even exist. It had already been taken care of.

How many times do we feel called to do something uncomfortable? Even if we start out, what do we do when we begin to see an obstacle? Do we use it as an excuse to turn back and not put an effort into what we set out to do or do we keep walking?

God continues today to roll stones away, He continues to shed light in our darkness. He continues to help us overcome our fear, our despair, our helplessness. We just need to continue walking where God leads us. Whatever obstacle that we come upon, He will help us overcome it, move it before we get to it, or give us the strength to live with it. No matter what you feel God calling you to do, don’t let the stones keep you from walking toward the calling.

Stones can be exterior such as finances, housing, transportation, etc. They can be interior such as depression, lack of confidence, uncertainty, anger, frustration, resentment, pain, stubbornness, bad memories, etc. No matter what the stones are God can help you deal with them. Sometimes He may choose to break the stones up instead of removing them. It can be painful as He reveals the broken pieces, but He will give you strength to overcome.

Sometimes we may even be looking for stones in our path. What do you hear yourself saying? “I can’t”, “I’m too young”, “I’m too old”, “Someone else can do a better job”, “I may fail”. Let’s do what God calls us to do. If He didn’t think you were the best for the job, He wouldn’t be asking you to do it.

Let this Easter be the time to shed light on the darkness in your life. Let God remove the stones that are blocking the light. Let God fill your heart with love, patience, peace, etc. Let the SON shine in your life.

Multiplied or Wasted?

If your life was $1000 bill and you gave it to God, what if He multiplied it and gave it back to you as several thousand $1 bills? Each day you would be asked to give Him $1 to represent your daily commitment to Him. The giving of the $1000 would represent you giving your life to Him for His gift of salvation. In no way does this imply that salvation can be bought with money because it cannot be purchased or earned. God giving you several thousand $1 bills in return represents how much more you will have when you give your life to him and the free will that He gives you to choose everyday whether you want to live that day for Him or not. Each $1 will represent a day of your life. We only have so many. We will have the choice to give it to him to multiply it and use it or to keep it and waste it. How many days have you already wasted? Do you wake each morning and take up your cross to follow Jesus? How will you spend your remaining days/dollars?

If you have a $20 bill to represent your day, $1 for each hour, how much of it will be given to Jesus? How well are you spending your time?

Are We Grumbling or Grateful?

After our early winter snow storm, the sun came out. Normally this would be a good thing. However, for me, the snow and the following sun were both bad timing. Having my garage floor refinished, everything had to be moved to a storage container which was situated in the driveway.  At the time the exact location for setting it up was chosen, it was still rather warm outside with no threat of what occurred this day. The warm sunshine melting the snow on the roof had dripped onto the container doors and concrete driveway apron, both of which were shaded from the sun, and therefore frozen into a lovely smooth thick glaze.

The sleds for enjoying the new snowfall were in the storage container. As I pulled with all my strength to crack the ice and release the latch to open the door, I forgot that I was standing on the same substance I was dealing with on the doors. Suddenly the latch gave way and at the same time so did my feet. Up went the feet and down went the cheeks and as I immediately realized they didn’t contain the amount of padding they used to, the upper set of cheeks went down too as I was now on the verge of tears. The pain was atrocious and my first thought was of my friend who was right then in the hospital with a broken hip from falling on the ice. I sat for a few minutes until the pain subsided enough to move. Of course Jessie, Jodi, Mila (dog) and the three boys had just left on a walk. And I was hidden from the neighbors by the container. (Thankfully!) So there was nobody to share my misery with. I did eventually get up and was thankful that nothing was broken. And I painfully went on with the day.

I should have considered there might be a lesson here. If I had, I might not have had to endure another painful black and blue hip.

At work we use a lot of plastic bands for securing mail. In training we had been warned of their danger and that we should pick up any that end up on the floor. A few weeks ago I was pulling a container when one of these straps fell from it. I only became aware of its presence as both my feet became victim of it. Have you ever been tackled? It was just like being tackled by the ankles except that I wasn’t on a nice soft football field wearing all my protective gear. I was on a bare cement floor. I went down so fast and so hard I didn’t have time to even see one second of my life flash before me. After realizing I was still alive, I rolled over on my back to assess the damage and noticed that right above me was a very wide, very solid concrete and steel pillar that I just barely missed hitting with my head.

Ok, lesson learned. I’m not only grateful that nothing is broken. I’m now also grateful that I’m alive. I bumped into a brand new grateful outlook on life. Instead of feeling bad that while everybody else is out partying I have to stay home and bake a birthday cake and get ready for a party that will happen while I’m at work, I’m grateful that I’m able to do what I’m doing. I don’t absolutely love going to work but I’m grateful that I have a job and am able to work. I see a lot more things to be grateful for. Everything that could be grumped about also has another side of it to be grateful for, etc.

Actually, I should have paid attention years ago to this lesson. It’s a dangerous thing to have to learn this way at my age.

Give thanks in all circumstances for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. (1 Thes 5:18)

Author Shirley O

God Is Good

When bad things happen, some people get mad at God and turn away from Him or don’t want to listen to someone talk of how good God is. It should not be God that they get mad at. It should be Satan. Rather than turn from God, they should be turning to God to help them overcome the bad. God can heal their hurts. God is the only one that can make all things work for the good of those that love Him. They should choose to do good which would get Satan back for his evil deed. Why would someone want to turn away from God because that in no way will help matters and it also gives Satan a foothold into their life. This gives him the ability to cause other bad things to unfold. We are instructed to overcome evil with good. Let’s draw closer to God with the things that unfold in our life.