Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth

It is always helpful to have instruction manuals. Even if one doesn’t use directions to put something together, it still helps to have a resource for trouble shooting, general maintenance, and customer service contacts. There will always be a time when we need help, whether we are willing to admit it or not. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was an instruction manual for life? Some basic guidelines for how a Christian is supposed to live? Well, there is!

Spiritual Gardening + An Announcement!

An Announcement!!!

Before I get to my weekly post, I would like to announce my next series…with all this talk about fruit, gardening and spiritual growth I think it pertinent to continue that theme and dig into the Fruit of the Spirit. We all produce fruit of some kind, and that fruit shows who we follow. The Fruit of the Spirit comes from a life absorbed in the Kingdom of God, but they are also things we should seek. We cannot be passive about growth. Tune in next week as I begin this study looking at how we can grow in Love. Like my facebook page or subscribe to my blog to receive them when they come out!

Spiritual Gardening

My kids love listening to the Secret Garden. And even though it is a children’s book, I enjoy it as well. The story of hope and transformation is so inspiring! I think there is a lot more depth to the story than it is often given. The concept of gardening, paired with growth and change, is both natural and profound. Jesus Himself used gardening and farming as frequent fodder for parables and teaching, partly because it was known and understood by the culture, but also I think because it is such a great picture of the spiritual life.

True Virtue: Beauty

Beauty is a popular subject in our culture. Our top magazines vote on the most beautiful people, our pageants feature the most beautiful, poised women, companies market products to prolong youthful beauty. It’s like living with Snow White’s step mother, where vanity is rampant and beauty is only skin deep. Does true beauty consist of more than one’s face? Is physical appearance even an aspect of real beauty?

A New Direction: Growing in Godliness

Growing in godliness is something that I have always been passionate about. Even as a child, before I was saved, I wanted to be like God, as close to perfect as I could be. I'm not sure what my motive was back then, but now that desire is driven by an intense longing to honor God. He has made the ultimate sacrifice for me, so that He could have a relationship with me. Even though I did nothing to deserve it, He paid the penalty for what I have done. I owe Him all that I have, and it is my greatest desire to express that love and gratitude. That is centered around honoring Him. And as I said in my last post, the best way that we can honor God is by being like God. When we act like God, we prove that we are God's children, that we truly believe His Word, and that we value and respect Him. That in turn glorifies Him to those around us. Of course we will never reach perfection this side of heaven, but we are called to try. We are called to put off everything in ourselves that is not godly and seek what is. 1 Corinthians 10:31 says that in everything we do we should glorify God. That is our ultimate, created purpose on this earth. If we genuinely strive for that, everything else that we want (to be good parents, spouses, employees, etc) will follow suit.

Because it is something that I believe is vital for every follower of Christ, it is my goal to help and encourage my readers to do that as well. As a result, after some thought and prayer, I have decided to make a few changes to my blog. The first change is to my theme or focus. I will still share what I have learned, but with the purpose of helping others to grow in their faith and walk with God, to become more like God. I will also post more frequently. My main post will continue to be on Mondays, but effective next week I will also post short devotionals Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.

In honor of this new change, next week I will start a series in my Monday posts about True Virtue. Virtue is not a popular subject in our society, and many of the virtues discussed in the Bible have been changed or warped by our culture (such as beauty and success.) But virtue is part of godliness. Each week I will discuss the biblical view of a different virtue in an effort to help us get closer to God's plan for us. I have already discussed three virtues at different times in the past; Motives, Freedom, and Peace.

Please know that in doing this I am not trying to put myself above anyone. I am no better or smarter than anyone else and what little knowledge and insight I have is a gift from God. I am merely trying to use what God has given me to help others. I hope that this new direction will be encouraging and beneficial to all.

Subscribe to my blog or follow me on facebook to receive my posts. Thank you for coming on this journey with me to seek God by becoming like Him!

The Best Gift

With Mother’s Day and Father’s Day near, (or Christmas) the idea of finding the right gift is forefront. Some people are really hard to shop for (my father for instance). But for other’s it is not that you don’t know what they would like, but you want to find that perfect gift, the one that best shows your affection or appreciation for that special someone. The struggle is real. What kind of thought do you put into the gifts you give God?