Guard Your Heart

Proverbs 4:23(NLT)

²³ Guard your heart above all else,
for it determines the course of your life

There is a huge Coopers Hawk where my sister lives, it is a impressive to see it flying around with it's huge wing span just gliding on the air.  There are bird feeder on my sisters dinning room windows, three of them that are suction cupped and a ton of birds come every day to get their meal.  You can be sitting there watching them all eat AND ALL OF THE SUDDEN the hawk swoops in grabs one and then flys away to partake of his catch.This happens about one to two times a month I was told. There are feathers flying everywhere from the mass get-away (it is after all every bird for themselves at that point) and the ones left behind are skittish and very timid to go back to the feeder again.

                                                                                
I asked my sister why those birds come back to the feeder? Why when they know that they are going to be breakfast, lunch, or dinner to they take the chance to come back? It is not like there are no other feeders in the area. It is not like they do not have clue that one of them could be a snack pack for the hawk. It is not like he comes out of no where. Because you see the Coopers Hawk is sitting in a group of trees just 15 to 20 feet away from the feeders, just peering through the trees, biding his time until the birds are getting comfortable with him there.  The birds who after seeing one of their friends or family swept away as a meal are at first skittish, they then slowly let there guard down and are lulled into a false sense of security until BAM it happens again.

In Proverbs 4:23 we are told to guard our hearts and I think that as Christian's sometimes we get lulled into things of this world and let down our guard. The definition of lulled is to: 1) to cause to relax vigilance 2) Cause (someone) to feel deceptively secure or confident. We need to keep our guard up against the world, when we are not feeling skittish that is when the devil will attack, he will swoop in just like the Coopers Hawk, leaving us stunned, just like the birds at the feeders that we were open to just such a attack.

Let us stay focused in Gods word to avoid just such attacks. Let us keep our guard up around our hearts so that the world will see a difference in us. Let us not just think that because the world states that it is OK, to be lulled into thinking as the world thinks. We need to be on guard for us, for our spouses, children, grandchildren, family and friends. Above all to all those in the world that are lost and looking for someone to be different, to those that have let their guard down and need help getting back up. To remember it is not everyone for themselves, we are to be the hands and feet of Chirst to others in this world.

Lord help me as I try each and every day to be grounded in Your word and to keep my guard up and around my heart so I may not miss the people that you put in place to cross my path every day to be the hands and feet of Christ. In His Name Amen

=)

God lit the Lamp

Matthew 5:14-16The Message

^14-16"Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand. Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.

I love this illustration that is given in the Bible about being a light for Christ and how we are instructed to be going public with it to bring out the God colors in this world as the Message translation up above reads.  I started about a year and a half ago slowly letting my God colors shine.  This is very exciting and sad all at the same time, you see I have been a Christian my whole life, I committed my life to Him when I was just a little girl, but the sad part is I was never letting my God colors shine.  I went to church, taught Sunday School and all the things people do when they are Christians, but I was under a bucket and was not confessing Him to the world that needs to hear of Him so desperately.

Matthew 10:32(TNIV)

  ³² “Whoever publicly acknowledges me I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven"

We need to let our God colors shine like a rainbow beacon for all those around us. To show by Word, Action and Deed, to be the Hands and Feet of Christ for a world that is just crying out to know Him.  I did this slowly by first putting a post on Face Book, I was scared my friends would think that I had become a "Crazy Fanatic".  This led to a lady in my church coming up to me, telling she was seeing a change in me and would I like to be a part of a small group, one thing led to another and that summer I was teaching a Bible Study Class!! It has been quite a roller coaster ride since I have started sharing my God colors and I am so excited to see where He is going to want me to go to let my light (which I have now taken my bucket off of) SHINE for Him. God is so good and His plans just really are what is best for us. Do not move slowly like I did. In fact why don't you pray about it, and let Him use you to show this world your God colors and SHINE BRIGHT for HIM!! =)

Dear Heavenly Father, Please be patient with us as we try to SHINE  as bright as the sun, go public for you and show the world our God color's.  We love you Lord Jesus and just want you to show You to a world that needs you so desperately. In His name Amen

=)

The Wonderful Remodle

Thought For The Week
2 Corinthians 5:17 (TN IV)

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

I live in a small town where every one knows every body so to speak, with that said there was a house for sale that was so run down whoever bought it would have to destroy it and start over, someone did purchase the house and they did demolish it and start over. BUT what they brought in to replace it was so much worse, outdated, messy and there was clutter every where, pieces of cement, wood, shingle piles it was endless. There did not seem to be a rhyme or reason to this structure and why the replacement house was not bulldozed down just like its predecessor  was. It went on this way for months a little progress here and a little progress there, still looking like the owner should just call it quits and move on. People complaining about who let that go on in town and what a eye sore it was, (I was so on that page also sad to say) you would drive by and just roll your eyes to the mess. 

One day in passing the messy house something had changed, there seemed to be a addition being put on to the messy house. Trusses where put into place, space for dormer windows on the upstairs were being put in, the roof line was changed to make the house itself from looking messy to looking really amazing.  I now pass by each day not grumbling about what a mess it is, thinking who let someone put that there and that will never amount to much, to WOW!! Who had the vision to think that up, can't wait to see how it looks when they are done and wonder what they will do with the inside. The house that I thought was just going to be a eye sore is turning out to be something I can not wait to see at completion.

I think that is how we view others sometimes, I know I do. We surround our selves with people who look, act,think, and are saved like us and when someone different comes around that doesn't fit the mold we tend to say what a mess they are. Our vision is so short term we do not even consider that the God of the universe loves this person and has a plan just for them, He has the vision to see what can come out of the mess that we call our lives.

God's vision for us is so amazing that even though we were some broken down old house, that someone took away and even at the start when it looks like more of a mess that the first round, God is here with His plan and His vision for our lives.  It truly can and will  be the most amazing remodel job of your life that you will ever hope to imagine,or partake in! Just remember God's vision is perfect and His remodel job on you was paid with the price of His Son on the cross. He loves you that much :)

Keeping my eyes on Him  =)

My Words on my tongue

Thought for the week
Psalm 139:4
Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely oh Lord.

It has so been laid on my heart what a weapon the tongue can be so many times, I am one that is quick to speak and alot of times have regretted what has come out of this mouth. I was at a pre-womens conference meeting this past Wednesday and the basis of our conference is going to be Psalm 139 (which is just a great Psalm) but what God had jump off the page at me was verse 4... What a thought that the God of all creation knows what I am going to say before it is even on my tongue. That lead to me pondering how disappointed at times He is with me. The phrase came to mind with some of the things that I had said is "Your going to kiss your momma with that mouth?", as I sat at the meeting just thinking of what I had done with my tongue even that day WOW!! I know we all struggle with our mouths and what comes out of it, sometimes it is out of anger, sometimes out of fear, jealousy, gossip, (and starting the sentence with "I not trying to be mean or anything doesn't count) insecurity or just plain stupid stuff.  I think that it is so humbling that the God of all creation cares enough about me to know what is going to roll off my tongue and that He cares if it is uplifting to Him or something that should not be coming out of my mouth. He cared enough to die for me, taking all the stupid stuff that I say to the cross for me. I guess if He has done that for me, I should be able to think before I speak for Him and try and make Kingdom differences here on earth.. 

Keepping my eyes on Him =)