LESSON'S ON FORGIVENESS THROUGH A PIECE OF WOOD

Today our bible lesson was about a piece of wood. A piece of wood can be much like our heart. You may say, "my heart isn't anything like a piece of wood". As we take a moment to study this piece of wood you will see exactly how your heart is like wood.

There was a old man who lived all by himself at the corner of town. When everyone looked at this old man they thought of someone with love, respect and honor. He had done many bad things when he was a younger man but after many years he came to know Jesus as his Saviour.  He had asked the Lord to cleanse him of all those sins.  The Lord promised that he would remove the man's sins, so the man was clean in God's eyes.

As this old man would sit on his porch in the old rocking chair he would think back on all those bad things that he had done as a young man. He didn't like the sad feeling that it left in his heart. He knew the Lord had forgiven him but he still felt bad that he had allowed those things into his heart.

We are much like this man. We go through life and we might tell a lie and as we hammer this nail into the wood we see that it represents a lie. A few days later we say a really bad word, and another nail is hammered into the wood. A week later we steal something and a third nail goes into the wood. Before long we look at the piece of wood and it is full of nails. Some of them are old and rusty and some are new and shinny. It doesn't matter how pretty of a nail it is, we don't want it in our hearts.

One day we ask Jesus to forgive us of all those terrible things that we have done. One by one Jesus pulls the nails out of our heart. Do you know where he puts them? He said he will cast them into the sea. This is a place where we can't go and get them back. They are forever gone.

He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us;

he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins

into the depths of the sea.

Micah 7:19

When we pull all of those nails out of the wood we can throw them away but there is one thing that we can't throw away and that is the memory of the bad things. We look at the piece of wood and we see all those ugly holes left in it. We might say, why would we still have all those memories left in our mind if Jesus got rid of all the sins? The reason is because we need to look and see what it has done to us so we will never want to have to go through it again. We don't want to grow old like the little man in our story and be sorrowful for all the bad things we did in the past. We want to ask Jesus to help us not to ever put the nails into our hearts. We need to ask him to give us strength to say no to sin.

Psalms 34:13-17

Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile.

Depart from evil, and do good;
seek peace, and pursue it.

The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous,
and his ears are open unto their cry.

The face of the LORD is against them that do evil,
to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.

The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth,
and delivereth them out of all their troubles.

The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart;



YOUR GREATEST NEED

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts:

and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh

 you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.

I Peter 3; 15

This scripture has been brought to life this week as each day I am challenged to give a devotion off the top of my head. I had no idea that the Lord would use a small child to challenge me in such a great way. 

Today I thought I was going to squeeze through the day without Iridian thinking about doing a devotion. Not that I would mind reading her one but she likes to choose an item and have me give her a devotion based off that one item. The later the day got the more I realized she had forgotten. She waited until late in the afternoon. We were out in the pool and she says, “It time!”. “Time for what was my response” “It’s time for a devotion and today our devotion is about water”.

Water is something we must have to live. Our bodies are about 90% water. Some of the water is in our blood cells and some of it is outside our blood cells. We have water in our plasma and water in the tissues of our body. There is water in our organs and even in our joints. Sometimes we feel that we can go without water and when we try, we soon find out that it is something we our bodies require.  We feel we can live our lives sometimes without Christ dwelling inside of us but just as our bodies require the water, our bodies also requires the living water in order to have eternal life.  We gather water from many sources. The moisture in the air keeps our skin moist and healthy. When we bath our skin absorbs water and we drink water daily to stay healthy.

If there were never a God then water wouldn’t have been created and thus you and I wouldn’t have life. We think we would like to remove God from schools, businesses and even our nation but if we did we would be asking him to leave us to ourselves. He is the one that sends the rain, sends the dew, and fills our lakes and rivers. When we ask him to leave, we are saying that we can survive on our own. We are saying that we as mankind can create our own water source. We are very intelligent people and can create many things but the one thing that mankind hasn’t learned to create is water. We can see how important water is so we need to remember that Jesus Christ is as important as the water we drink. He is the Living Water and the provider of our greatest need.

That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him,

and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:

For in him we live, and move, and have our being;

 as certain also of your own poets have said,

For we are also his offspring.

Acts 17:27-28

LEARNING THE TRINITY THROUGH COOKING

If I was thinking this week I would write one blog or devotion I certainly found out differently today. Iridian and Mateo stayed the day over at our house again today. About half way through the day Iridian said, ”Ok, time for a bible lesson” Once again it would be an object that she got to choose. So here we are in the kitchen making six very large pans of cookies for all the children that attend our Wednesday night services. This time Iridian said, “ok, I will make it easy on you. This time you get to pick the object and tell the story about anything we see while we are cooking”.


This girl wants to challenge me. I’m wondering if the Lord sent her here this week to pick up the speed of devotions. I thought once a week was doing good and sometimes I post twice a week. Today she informed me that we will be doing a spur of the moment devotion every day this week since she’s coming every day until Friday. I think she loves to see that panic look on my face.

Since we were making Oatmeal Chocolate Chip bars I looked around to find the best item on the cabinet to turn into a devotion. There were eggs in the carton so today’s devotion was easier since I did one on this as a children’s lesson a few months ago.

An egg has three parts, the outer shell, the egg white and the yoke. Although it is made of three parts, it is just one egg. This is much like the trinity. The trinity is made up of God the Father, God the Holy Spirit and God the Son. Although they are three parts they are also one. When we look at the egg in the carton we can not see the egg white or the egg yoke. The same is true when we look at the trinity. No man has ever seen God the Father or God the Holy Spirit. The shell on the egg has to be broken before we can even get to the egg white and the egg yoke. The same is true with God the Son who is Jesus. We know that Jesus lived and walked on the earth. He was able to be seen with the human eye. Jesus Christ also had to be broken for our sins. The only way possible for us to see God the Father and God the Holy Spirit was for God the Son to be cracked or broken for us.

Jesus Christ did that very thing when he laid down his life and died on the cross for our sins. All we have to do is believe and trust in him in order to have eternal life. When we put our trust in him we will know God the Holy Spirit and he will live in us. One day God the Father will return for his children and we will go to spend eternity in heaven.

John 1:1-5

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

The same was in the beginning with God.

All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

DO YOU HAVE A BALANCED LIFE?

Today there were two of the church kids visiting in our home.  We were standing out in the front yard and Iridian said, "Sherry, do you remember the Sunday you taught chirldren's lesson about the feathers you found in your front yard?"  "Yes Iridian I remember teaching you about the eagle and how we are to wait on the Lord."  Iridian said, " over there is a balance and I would like for you to tell me a bible story about that balance".  "Wow seriously Iridian, in 5 seconds you want me to tell you a bible story about an object in my yard".  She giggled and said, "so what will it be"?

The balance in my front yard has a hummingbird on one side and a flower with a ball on the oposite side.  It stands about three and a half feet tall and teeters in the wind.  This was a gift from my son, Josh for mothers day.  I watch it during a rain storm and on windy days and I am amazed at how it stays on the slim little pole no matter what.   

So here was the story I told Iridian about the balance in my front yard.  One day there was a man that lived his life without God.  As we removed the ball from the center of the flower you could plainly see that the hummingbird lost its balance.  The little hummingbird was falling and swaying in the wind.  If the storms came along at this point  the hummingbird would loose its balance and fall to the ground.  One day the man heard about Jesus and he asked Jesus to come live in his heart.  As I placed the ball into the flower I said, when the empty spot was filled the man had balance in his life for the first time.

As the storms came and hit against the man and the winds blew and tried to knock him over, he was able to keep his balance all because of what he had placed into his heart.  We are all like this man, if we don't have Jesus in our hearts then when the storms come and spin us around we also will not be able to stand.  You see Iridian it is very important to let Jesus be in the center of our lives.

For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness;

and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Rom 10:10

 

“Brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure:

 for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall.”
II Peter 1:10

None of us want to be like Nebucahnezzer in Daniel 5:27 Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.

Thanks to Iridian for opening my eyes to something that was right before me every day and yet I had never seen before.

CASTING SEEDS INSTEAD OF PLANTING THEM

Where there is no vision, the people perish:

but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.

Proverbs 29: 18

If we do not have a vision for our future, we will not take the time to cast seeds out. The vision for our children, their children and other peoples children needs to be real. I’m not even sure we can have the same vision as we have had in the past. Maybe we need to pray and ask the Lord to give us a new vision. We are dealing with children that grew up in a totally different culture than the one we were raised in. We need to pray and ask the Lord what the vision for the children of the 21st Century is.

This is something I have talked with friends about and one I battle with daily. Have I trained my children in the right path?  Did I do all that I could do? Is there something I should have done differently? My one goal from the time I gave birth to my first child until the day my last child graduated from high school was to place the word of God on their pallet every day, in every way. I desired above everything else that all my children grow up and serve the Lord. Did I say, “Grow up and be pastor’s or missionaries?” No, that would be great but I didn’t care what career they choose as long as they walked with God. To me, if my children aren’t walking with God, then I’m a failure. What we must realize now that they are adults and on their own, is that they choose which path they walk down. I’m no longer the one to choose for them.

This can be defeating but today after talking with a dear friend of mine I was reminded that the journey isn’t over. Yes, it is a journey. The more seeds we plant in their lives while they are growing and the more seeds we continue to plant the more chance there is for them to spout forth and start growing in the Lord one day. This verse is from the amplified bible.

ISAIAH 32:20

“Happy and fortunate are you

who cast your seed upon all waters

 [WHEN THE RIVER OVERFLOWS ITS BANK

for the seed will sink into the mud and

WHEN THE WATERS SUBSIDE,

 it will spring up; you will find it AFTER MANY DAYS

in an abundant harvest],

and can safely send forth the ox

the donkey [to range freely].”

PS 126:6

He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed,

shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,

bringing his sheaves with him,

On this journey through life after our children leave home we see ourselves as the child and Christ as the father. Here is the question we find ourselves asking. “When Lord will they be there”?   When are they going to start serving you?  How long is it going to take?”

Last week we kept our grandson Camren, who is a very intelligent young man who loves life to its fullest. He is nine and to him everything is special to the point that everything must be kept or collected. The littlest things plant memories into his little mind. We took so many pictures on our journey last week with Camren so that he could put them on Shutterfly and have the memories. He was so adorable when he walked into our house on Sunday night. He walked into the leaving room, look a deep breath and said, “dreams” oh I meant “memories”. I asked him what he meant and he said, “just memories MeeMee of all the fun things we do”.  I realized we were on a journey and as we travel together that I am planting seeds. I don’t want to drop one or two I want to throw them everywhere so that when the storms come, the seeds wash to the shore, plant themselves into the mud and then grow. Did you notice when they grow? Not while we are walking and talking but when the storms come in his little life. We pray for our children to be protected and not have any storms but it’s the storms that will wash those precious seeds onto the shore. If it’s one seed, chances are it will not develop but if there are thousands of seeds, that child has more of a chance for the seed to develop and grow to maturity.

Driving Camren home on Thursday he would ask often, “MeeMee, how long is it going to take”? MeeMee how far did we drive so far? MeeMee is it as far as when I came to see you the other day? MeeMee, it’s taking a long long time to get there and I’m wanting to see my dad. The questions just kept coming. It was going to be about midnight when we arrived so I just urged Camren to close his eyes and go to sleep. I told him it would only feel like a few minutes if he just rest but if he doesn’t it will still feel like a very long time.

Are we not just like Camren after our children are grown. They are on a journey and probably going to go through some storms. It’s not easy for me because I’m much like the little child saying, “when Lord are they going to be there?” When Lord are they going to see?” Why Lord are they not following you after pouring the Word of God into their lives daily”? When Lord am I going to get to see them walking with you?

The reminder to us is Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Did you read that? Right now we are on a journey with them. We are the one asking all the questions and the Father gently says, if you will rest awhile you will find the journey goes faster. We don’t know how long the Father is going to allow them to go along on their own and it might take some storms to bring them back, but keep casting seeds out into their lives so that when the time is right the seed will wash ashore and find fertile ground.

Our place is not to paddle out into the storm and push the seed to shore. Our place is to rest in the Lord, keep planting, encouraging and praying. One day I truly believe we will wake up and the journey will be over.

Isaiah 59: 19-21

So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west,

and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood,

the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.

20 And the Redeemer shall come to Zion,

and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob,

 saith the LORD.

21 As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD;

My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth,

shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed,

nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever.

CHECKING OUR VISION

Do you ever wonder why other people can’t see things the same way you do? Do you catch yourself believing you are the one with perfect vision and everyone else needs to get their eyes checked? Wouldn’t it be grand to see things exactly the way the Lord sees them? To see through his eyes the people that are hurting. To see exactly how we should respond to them. Just to know that when we move in a direction to help them that we will truly be helping them instead of hurting them. Just to have spiritual 20/20 vision.


We need to look around at those who don’t have 20/20 vision and when they are struggling to read or find out something, we need to lend a helping hand. We also need to do this in the spiritual realm , there are those longing to see God better but don’t know how. Will you be there to lend a helping hand to them or will you have no compassion and just walk on past them?

Maybe we need a visit to the great physician. He can help us clear the cataracts from our eyes and help us see things the way Jesus does. He can help us see where we have been looking at situations with a blurred view. When I look at a situation I look at it with my eyes, eyes that have learned certain traits, eyes that have learned to shut out certain facts, eyes that have learned to shade in new colors to make things look differently than they truly appear. Am I the only one that see’s this situation from this prospective? Probably not, for you see there are many of you that were raised the same as I. You have also learned to throw in the shades of colors you choose. When doing so, we are distorting the truth of the matter.

The Lord had compassion on sinners. I was just speaking with a friend yesterday who said, I know I should have compassion but honestly they should have known they were destroying their body. Therefore, “I have no compassion”. Sadly, too many of us say the same thing but we all have things in our lives that we also need to clean out. When the Lord looks down with his perfect vision, he sees his small child trying to do things all by himself/herself. Does he slap the daylight out of us? Does he walk away and say, “He deserves what he gets”? No, with his tender compassion and mercy he says, “come child, let me wipe you off”. “Come and sit with me, talk with me and learn of me so that I can help you see things as I do”.

You see, through his eyes we are all dirty until we allow him to cleanse us. We all make mistakes. I am no better than you and you are no better than me. Just all lost children trying to find the way. The only difference is some go to the father and ask him for direction while others try to find it on there own. Does the Lord come along to them and slap them upside the head? No, he still gently ask them to follow and he still offers his love, mercy and kindness to them even if they do wrong? Does he agree with what they are doing? No, but he never stops loving them. We need sit with the Lord long enough that our eyes of compassion are made perfect. We need to love the unloving, help the hurting, and continue to see the world through Jesus’ eyes instead of our own.

HOW IS YOUR LIGHT?

We have solar lights in the front yard along the sidewalk. This was such a wonderful invention. When I started having so many issues with my back and neck we invested in an above ground pool so that I wouldn’t have to drive to another town and do therapy. I soon found that the solar lights are wonderful to put on top of the edge of my pool. There are about 16 slots where solar lights slide into and they fit like a little pocket for them. For my birthday Steve purchased me lots of solar lights. The lights are perfect for the nights that I decide to exercise after dark. If I am outside and the sun starts going down, the solar lights starts coming on one by one. By the time the sun is completely down, all the lights are on. I never have to worry about not being able to see. It is quite pleasant when I am in the pool now.

When I first discovered how wonderful the lights were around the pool, I had gone into the front yard where I only had a few solar lights. I removed one of the lights from the front flowerbed and carried it through the house for a trial run out at the pool. Immediately, it was decided we needed to invest in a lot of these lights. I loved the relaxing, ambiance feeling that the lights created. It just seemed as if the light were dancing on the water. It was definably decided an investment would be made. I needed to return the light to the front yard but on my way, I became side tracked. This is nothing new for me lately, I am constantly getting side tracked. I laid the solar light on the cabinet and forgot it there for a few days.

I was needing to attend to something in the front yard and my light wasn’t there. I proceded to the cabinet, removed the solar light, and set out to accomplish my goal. Little did I realize when I walked out into the darkness that is where I would remain. My light wouldn’t shine. Does this little light not realize that his job is to shine at night? Does it not know that I am standing here in the utter darkness waiting for it to do its job? Is the light no good? Did I break it, somehow not realizing it? What has happened to my little light that once lighted my pathway?

Just a couple days out of the sunlight and my little light was gone. Could it be recharged? “Yes”, it could be of which I was grateful. Could I plug it in and recharge it? “No”. There was only one way to recharge my little light and that was to sit it under the sun. The light would let the rays from the sun give it energy. Therefore, later that night, the light would be able to once again light my path.

We are so much like this little light. We don’t even realize we have lost our charge but the people around us can see that we have. It’s pretty plain to them what we need to do but we continue on day after day without basking in the Son’s light. There are many people that have gone days, months, or years without letting the Lord’s light shine on them. When a battle comes to a friend they are the first to say, “Let me help you”, “here use my light”. Not even realizing that the light of the Lord is no longer shinning in and through them.

Can your light be charged back up in seconds? How about minutes? “No”, we need to meditate on the Word of God. We need to sit and bask in it for a bit. We need to allow the SON to shine down on us and fill us with his light so that when others need our assistance, we can step forward and say, “Here my light is fully charged, I will help you out”. We can be assured that we will not lose our charge at a very inopportune time.

“Ye are the light of the world.

A city that is set on an hill

cannot be hid.” Matthew 5:14

Can you imagine what the Lord thinks some nights when he looks down on his lights? Can you picture in your mind how many people read the word daily, listen to Christian music daily or discuss the Word of God daily? I know talking to some very devout Christians that most of us don’t stay in the Son long enough to hold a charge. We sit around and wonder why our world keeps groping in darkness? Is it their fault, or is it our fault? We would love to place the blame on them but I’m afraid to many times we want to be sitting under the TV or computer games or just goofing off instead of refueling. You are his solar light and if there are hundreds, thousands or millions of us not sitting under the SON long enough to have a light source when it becomes dark, we can only blame ourselves, not our world. Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying,

I am the light of the world:

he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness,

but shall have the light of life. John 8:12

This verse makes it plain as day that your light comes from him. He is your light source and if you choose to follow him, you will never walk in darkness.

LET’S GET CHARGED UP SO WE CAN BE LIGHT UP OUR WORLD