Fireflies and Snipe Hunts

Accidents happen.  Sickness overwhelms us.  Violence fills our TV screens and social media every day.

People die.   People are seriously injured. 

Even the very young.

Those that are left behind grieve horribly and our hearts break.

Today I was in a conversation with a couple of young ladies.  We were talking about the  recent deaths of local teenagers and also about the school shootings that have occurred. 

One  sad young lady told me that these are the reasons she doesn't want to have children.

She didn't want them to live in a world where these horrible things happen.

She didn't want her children to die young and untimely deaths.

Wanting to protect possible future children, she is thinking of never having them at all.

I immediately thought of my brother and sister who both passed away as young adults.   Greg at 24 and Karen at age 19.

It was horrible.  It was unbearable, yet my parents and my siblings and I were called to bear it.

Decades later I still feel a bittersweet pain in my heart when I think of their deaths.

Oh! But when I think of their lives!

Laughter and smiles and memories of growing up together!

Music and dance and song!

Beauty and wonder!

Shared interests and ideas.

Bike rides and kites flying high!

Fireflies and snipe hunts!

Running and chasing and dreaming!

Playing together and loving each other.

Yes, I am sad that they died young.  But I am so glad and thankful to God that they lived!

Their lives had meaning and purpose.  They lived bravely and joyously.

God has a plan for each of us and He knows the number of our days.

"Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.  And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them." (Psalm 139: 16) NKJV

I no longer ask "Why?"  I just say "Thank You that they were in my life." 

Today is Graduation Day for a lot of high school Seniors.  It's an amazing and wonderful day for you!

Yet some of you have recently experienced the loss of friends or family. 

Honor their lives with your memories of them.  Don't let the sadness and fear limit your plans for the future.

Smile and laugh when you recall their lives.

Trust in Jesus for your future.

Seek Him and His will for you.

Don't be afraid of the future!   Race toward it with open arms! 

Righteousness and Peace Kiss

Psalm 85 [Psa 85:4, 6-7, 9-13 NKJV]

4 Restore us, O God of our salvation, And cause Your anger toward us to cease. ...

6 Will You not revive us again, That Your people may rejoice in You?

7 Show us Your mercy, LORD, And grant us Your salvation. ...

9 Surely His salvation [is] near to those who fear Him, That glory may dwell in our land.

10 Mercy and truth have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed.

11 Truth shall spring out of the earth, And righteousness shall look down from heaven.

12 Yes, the LORD will give [what is] good; And our land will yield its increase.

13 Righteousness will go before Him, And shall make His footsteps [our] pathway.

His people had once again been rebellious, just as we all can be. They were held captive by their sin, yet they longed for their relationship with God to be restored.

I can relate. I have times in my life when my relationship with Him is not what it should be. Times when I just want to hide from Him even though everything in me screams to be one with Him. It’s as though I can’t find a way. It was as though the Israelites could not find their way.

So we beg God ... they begged and prayed to God: “Turn us, O God of our Salvation and cause thine anger toward us to cease!” (KJV) “Wilt Thou not revive us again that thy people might rejoice in Thee?”

Rescue us from ourselves. Bring us out of this captivity. Revive the life and breath in our souls.

Revive! This is from the Hebrew word “chayah” with this meaning: to live, have life, remain alive, sustain life, live prosperously, live for ever, be quickened, be alive, be restored to life or health.

Turn ... Restore .... Redeem .... Make New. Quicken me! Make me live! Sustain me and prosper me! Restore my health and well being! Only God can do this in us. He is the One that turns us back to Him. When we cry out to Him and turn to Him, He returns to us.

Charles Spurgeon wrote “Yea, He is first in the reconciliation and turns them when otherwise they would never turn of themselves.”

Without His willingness and His love for us, there is no turning back to Him. There is no revival unless He does the reviving.

“Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” (KJV) Psalm 85: 10

Mercy and truth are met together! This is no chance meeting. This is an encounter long planned out and planned for. A joining together for a purpose. For God’s purpose and plan to reign and rule and love His children in mercy and revealing His truth to us in the person of Jesus Christ.

Yet this part! This takes my breath away! “righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” This is sheer poetry come to life.

Kissed. From the Hebrew word “Nashaq” meaning the idea of fastening up; to kiss, literally or figuratively (touch);mutually connected; joined together; also (as a mode of attachment), to equip with weapons:—armed (men), rule, kiss, that touched.

You kiss what you love. A kiss is intimate and personal. A kiss joins you with another. It connects you. It binds.

Righteousness comes only from God. He is the only Righteous One.

Righteousness and peace have kissed, becoming so intimately intertwined with each other that you can not have one without the other ... as Christ kissed the earth, becoming so joined with His creation as to be a part of it... a part of us.

He was intimately with us, in our lives, walking, talking, breathing, equipping us with what we need to do battle against evil, reviving and restoring us to the Father. He was Emmanuel, God with us.

He gave us the Holy Spirit that lives in us.

He kissed our souls with Righteousness and made us at peace with Him.

Righteousness and Peace kissed at the cross where Mercy and Truth met, and God became at peace with His creation because of His Son Jesus who provided for our salvation.

We are justified by faith and at peace with God through Jesus Christ. He has made us righteous as though we had never sinned, as though we had never worshiped or kissed an idol. As though we had never turned away from Him.

So if you are held captive by your own choices, if you are wandering and want to return home, if you are just tired of the life you have been living, pray and ask forgiveness. Ask Him to help you turn from that captivity and set you free. Ask the Father and He will save you.. He will do a work in you and revive your relationship with Him.

He will show you how to live your life in righteousness and He will bless you.

His promise to us is true.

You might say He sealed it with a kiss.

Kathy Thompson Ellis

05/08/2018

Unfazed

We go about our lives letting every little thing filter into our thoughts and into our attitudes. 

From dreading the Monday morning alarm going off, to worrying about relationships, finances, paying the bills. Can we afford groceries this week? Will we be able to pay for the kid’s new clothes, shoes? Oh wow! The car needs gas. Again? For Heaven’s sake, a birthday or holiday is coming up! How will we manage that? The doctor’s report? Not to mention the normal every day stuff that goes along with co-workers, friends, “the boss”, birth, death, taxes. Did I mess that up? Did I say or do the wrong thing? Is he / she mad? Will I get to keep my job? Does he / she love me? I’m not good enough. Am I pretty enough? How did I get into this mess? Again!?

The list is endless. At least it seems that way to us.

These not so little things add up and become giant crashing waves in our lives.

We let life get in the way of living.

Worry and dread are nothing more than the devil attempting to distract us from being the person that God created us to be. 

The new creation in Christ.

The born again power wielding believer.

The prayer warrior, minister, missionary, encourager, teacher, spouse, parent, child of God, over comer, that He sees when He looks at us.

 
I believe that God sees us as we are.

But I believe that He also sees us as the completed work that He makes of us.

He is unfazed by our lack of cooperation. He will have His way with His children. But it saves us a lot of work and time if we will just cooperate and trust Him and allow Him to change us from the inside out.

I like that word. “Unfazed”.

Fazed is defined as: Disturbed, disconcerted, daunted, worried, vexed, violent impact.

It comes from the Old English word “feeze” which means: to beat, to drive off, agitation, to frighten, alarm or discomfit, to surprise and create discomposure.

Please don't feeze me.

These definitions are all components of fear.

We let these mindsets creep into our lives, beat us down, drive off our faith, and determine our responses and actions.

So if I like the word “Unfazed”, why do I define “fazed”?

To demonstrate that being unfazed is the direct opposite.

Fear does not come from God. Fear comes from the liar, satan.

Peter was walking on the water, exhilarated and in awe! Until he took his eyes off Jesus and took note of the waves. Only then did he begin to sink. He let the devil distract him with fear.

Jesus wasn’t even paying any attention to the storm.   He didn't have a care about it.

Again, He was unfazed by what should have, at least in our eyes, concerned and daunted Him.

 
We’re human. We get distracted. We encounter stormy waters on a daily basis. We get a bit vexed by it. We are daunted, frightened by the storm and wonder how we are going to make it with our heads under water because we sank once again.

Oof!

Let's plan to act on faith and rely on Jesus in advance of storms.

Let’s make a deliberate intentional effort to become so entrenched in our faith that we look first to Jesus when those distractions and storms come.

If God is unfazed by what we worry about, shouldn’t we also be without fear?

He does not give us a spirit of fear. 

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7 )

So don’t be fazed by life. Don’t live in fear and dread of what a day may bring. Don’t convince yourself (or be convinced by the liar) that things are bad or terrible.

Yes, I know that bad things happen and we do go through a lot. But I also know that if Jesus told us to “...be of good cheer. I have overcome the world...” (John 16: 33) when troubles come, then we should trust Him to be with us and guide us as we go through these terrible, horrible, very bad days instead of being overcome by them. 

We should be unfazed as He is unfazed.

No, it’s not easy .... until you do it.... step by step ... day by day.

Maybe you fail. Maybe you get overwhelmed by a circumstance.

But remind yourself of who you are in Christ and that He gives you power to overcome.

So you start again.... step by step ... day by day.

Because the faith and the power is still there in the middle of your bad day. It belongs to you because you are an heir of the One True God. He didn’t leave you.

In fact, you may find yourself being a little cheerful, or a LOT cheerful looking to Him to see what wonders He will do in your life. Again! 

You may find yourself looking forward to what God might accomplish through you in a bad (or good) day when you live and trust in that spirit of power and love and a sound mind.

Look to Him. Trust Him. Believe Him. Take Him at His Word. All fear and worry will disappear.
He will give you peace.

Live life unfazed.

Kathy Thompson Ellis
All scripture references are from the NKJV.