Set Your Sights On Things Above
We so quickly get our eyes off God. Let's get back into
perspective.
perspective.
7/4/2014
Guest Post Time!My daughter, Colleen, wanted to write this post. She's very passionate about many things, and this is straight from her heart. After having a not-so-good day in my social life, seeing this image (above) in my newsfeed really got me thinking. I crave social interaction. Often times too much. I’ll find myself rearranging my priorities to just fit someone else's wants which isn't particularly healthy. I am a people pleaser to the max. If I can make someone happy or help them, I will try my best to do so. Whether it be dropping whatever I'm doing at the moment to give someone a ride, offering comfort over the phone to a long distance friend or spending many weekends planning a wedding. Honestly, I enjoy being there for my friends.
I am blessed to have more than one or two best friends. A couple of them are long distance but the rest are here in town. Having more than one best friend brings some complications into life. Sometimes I have to choose between them who I'm going to hang out with that night. The decision isn’t always easy. I love them all but I can’t be in two places at once. I cannot make each one of them first priority all the time. The one problem I have with this quote is making someone a priority in your life shouldn’t be so that they’ll make you one in theirs. If you really love someone you should do it because you love them not for what they’ll give you in return. A true friend will stick beside you even if you are the one pushing them away. They’ll be there for you no matter what. This doesn’t mean you should let someone walk all over you. You have boundaries that should be respected. If someone is treating you wrong, remove yourself from the situation. You do not have to let them treat you like a door mat. Putting a loved one's needs above yourself should be your main goal though. A friend is there for support. Be the best friend you can possibly be and eventually you will gain good friends. As Christians, we should be putting other people before ourselves anyways. We don’t treat other people with kindness and love just so we get the same in return. We do it because it’s the right thing to do. Jesus died on the cross for all of humanity knowing full well that thousands of millions of people would curse His name and reject Him. He made us first priority even though we often times make Him a mere option. You shouldn’t live your life as a door mat, letting whoever comes along treat you however they want. But you shouldn’t live your life making yourself your first and only priority. The biggest blessing anyone can receive is by being the greatest blessing to someone else. Guest Post Time! This article is written by Richard Chamblee (if you noticed the common last name, yes, he's my husband.) New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently stated, when referring to his efforts on gun control and his nanny-state limits on obesity and smoking, “I am telling you if there is a God, when I get to heaven I’m not stopping to be interviewed. I am heading straight in. I have earned my place in heaven. It’s not even close.” He said this with a grin. This is the guy who legislated how big soft drinks could be in the city, and doesn't trust the law-abiding members of the populace to responsibly control their own guns. The criminals who threaten that populace by ignoring laws anyway are not in the purview of this discussion, but the criminalization of that populace by freedom-stealing laws is. This brings several points to mind concerning living in freedom down here, and entrance to heaven afterwards. 1) "For by grace(undeserved merit) are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift(grace) of God: not of works(man's efforts), lest any man should boast(Bragging)." Ephesians 2:8-9 The Bible teaches that we get to heaven based on a gift from God that we do not deserve. We cannot work our way into heaven. Mayor Bloomberg's statement is framed as a hypothetical based on the existence of God; but the crux of God's statement in His Word is that we cannot earn it, so we cannot end up bragging about it when we get to heaven. "Look what I did to earn my way here!" This attitude is antithetical to salvation, as we have to admit we do not deserve it, before we can obtain salvation. 2) Mayor Bloomberg is notorious for living the maxim "Laws for thee, but not for me". His carbon footprint, if you care about such things, is enormous, but he thinks he has earned the favor of God by telling his constituents that buying a few more ounces of soda in one purchase is bad. Jesus blasted the self-righteous religious leaders of his day for doing the exact same thing. "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe(10%) of mint and anise and cumin(spices), and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith(matters of freedom): these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone." Matthew 23:23 Jesus, God in the flesh, Who lived down here with us for 33.5 years, found that the hypocritical Pharisees needlessly burdened the people(took their freedoms?) by making up too many laws. What He did not do was blast and condemn sinners like the woman caught in the very act of adultery. The difference was her ATTITUDE of repentance. Take note, Mayor. 3) God, who spoke the universe into existence, has the authority and power to make us all robots to do His will. Many is the non-believer that asks the question, "How can God allow evil in the world?" The answer is free will. God can make us, but He chooses to allow us to choose to love Him, and follow Him. I much prefer when my children CHOOSE to jump up in my lap and say, "I love you, Daddy!" (Even my 19 year-old) It is just not the same when I order them to do it. It seems God's approach to freedom, i.e, free will, is to allow us to choose between right and wrong. God gave authority to human government to punish evil-doers(those who harm others), but I just do not see, Mayor, where that authority exists from Him that allows you to decide you won't let me make my own meal choices. That approach does not seem very divine, if you aspire to that standard. 4) I have been around someone when they say something distinctly ungodly, or casually mention some sin they are currently engaged in. They then realize my background(trained to be a preacher), and they look sheepish, and apologize. I do my best to not be self-righteous(enough sins of my own to be ashamed about), but I try to gently explain how sin offends God far more than it does me. His holiness will not let Him ignore sin, as we all have to pay a price for sinning, but He will not put us in some sort of supernatural tractor beam that will hold us immobile, preventing us from sinning against Him. He loves us enough to allow us to offend him with our sin, to allow Jesus to pay for that sin on the cross, and to allow us the time to realize the wonderful gift that the cross and the resurrection provide for us. Mr. Mayor, perhaps you should realize that there are some things that are in the realm of the spiritual, and God's responsibility, rather than that of the government. 5) "Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?" Habakkuk 1:13
Since you claim to be in God's league, and will not even be stopped at the gate of heaven for an ID check, how can you make criminals out of law abiding citizens for HAVING guns to protect themselves, and comparatively ignore those who are USING guns to "devour" those around them? You talk much about gun control, but seem to hold your tongue about those who destroy lives with their guns for their own personal gain. 6) So what does the application of God's Word to this situation teach us to do? a) Live and let live. It is not up to the government to legislate things that do not harm anyone else b) Lessons in humility are good for us humans. It keeps us from thinking that what we decide must be what God thinks. c) Legislating to PROTECT freedom, not to LIMIT freedom, is the responsibility of government, and, by extension, government officials like the Mayor. d) Forcing others to do something to right a small wrong, while ignoring a huge wrong, is backwards thinking. e) We should focus our efforts on the real wrong doers, instead of making criminals by fiat, due to a new law. We should do something EFFECTIVE, not do ANYTHING so we can claim to be solving the problem. I will not be the judge of whether or not the Mayor gets into heaven. I cannot know what is in his heart, anymore than he knows what is in mine or anybody else's. But the Bible does say, "By their fruits you shall know them." We can judge people's actions, albeit by God's standards. God certainly has the authority to tell Mayor Bloomberg what to do; it remains to be seen whether he will do it.
1/23/2014
Good or BadWhy do bad things happen to good people?Everybody asks it, but I mean why do REALLY bad things happen to those we consider REALLY good people? I don't mean fakes. I don't mean people who were pretending to be one thing when all along they were really something else. I mean down-to-earth, real servants of God, who were living the dream, so to speak. Not the American dream, the one that says you have a house, a yard, a dog and 2.5 kids. No, the ones living the 'ministry' dream...the ones who are on the 'inside', actively serving God every day, able to help those around them, and being given responsibility and service in their local church. The ones we all look up to. The ones we're pointed to as good examples. Why do bad things happen to them? First I ask, why do we question it? Why do we assume that because they're in ministry they won't have anything bad happen to them? I mean criminally bad. I mean, why do we assume they're immune to a doctor giving them bad medication and it causing them to have an irreversible disease. Or a neighbor getting angry at them over something ridiculous and calling government agency after agency until they find something they don't like. Or a trusted friend betrays. Or they're in a car accident and lose a husband, a daughter, a son, a wife. We know sometimes bad things happen to good people. But you know, bad things also also happen to REALLY good people. I think too often we see something bad happen, something downright inexplicable, and we wonder what was 'really going on' in that house. We start to think, well, they weren't who we really thought they were. They 'obviously' had some skeletons in their closet. Maybe God's trying to get their attention. Maybe they were burned out. Guess who we just became? Job's friends. Job's friends weren't really all that friend-like. They assumed, they judged, they condemned, they were self-righteous. Our pastors, ministers, Sunday school teachers - they aren't immune to disease, to sin, to someone else's bad choices having consequences for them. They aren't immune to any of that. Don't judge them hastily when something happens. You don't know what brought it on. You don't know the truth behind any of it. Judge when it's your responsibility to judge, but don't step over that boundary from discretion into condemnation when it isn't your place. And always and forever, PRAY for them. Ministers aren't immune, they are actually more prone to the devil's attacks. Things will be thrown at them that you cannot imagine unless you're in the ministry in some way. Pray for a hedge of protection. Pray for peace and boldness. And when something bad happens in their life, pray for them still. Pray they'll be brought through it. Pray for God's further protection. Pray for God to be given the glory. Pray for God's will to be done.
1/9/2014
The Weeping WillowThe weeping willow has got to be one of my favorite trees of all time. They are so distinctive, so unusual that they stand out everywhere they grow. They are graceful, and attractive - you just want to stare at them for some reason. A friend of mine wrote this next piece awhile ago, and I thought I'd share it here. Her thoughts spoke to me - it's something that I think God wants us all to be like. I left it exactly as she wrote it, the links to her books and blog are below. When I couldn’t sleep at 3:30 this morning, I began to talk to God. I began praying for me to be better in some areas as the Spirit led me. He told me to study the Weeping Willow tree and find out all about it as He wanted me to be like it. I thought this was odd. I thought maybe He wanted me to be depressed? But that didn’t really seem right, so I just did my study, and here are some facts about the trees: They are fast growing, they have a distinctive shape, they aren’t fussy about their soil type, and they’re very adaptive. Taken straight from wiki, word for word, “While they prefer moist, cool conditions, they can tolerate some drought.” Thank you, Lord! What are we without right now at our house? That’s right, water! Another neat thing I learned about the tree is that the first aspirin was invented from its sap. Many people take one aspirin a day for heart health. The Weeping Willow has helped many hearts. Does this line up with me being a counselor? This is no coincidence. I am now considering myself to be a Weeping Willow. Most people would think that’s depressing, but I think it fits me perfectly. Look at the branches on the tree and see how they bend, but don’t break. They are so flexible that they look double jointed. Lord, make me this flexible. Allow me to enjoy my time of drought with no complaint. Help me help many hearts! Help me to grow quickly so I might provide shade for a person who feels like they are burning up inside! What a revelation. If you’ve read this, maybe you should try talking to God and asking what kind of tree He wants you to be. Thank you, Lord! ................ In the Bible the first mention I found of a willow tree was Psalms 2: "We hanged our harps on the willow tree in the midst thereof ..." this scripture is referring to the Babylonian captives who retired their instruments of praise when they were in a crisis situation. HOW IRONIC THAT THEY HUNG THEIR HARPS ON A WILLOW TREE!. Praising God in our storms is the key to victory and we must be like weeping willow trees and not only survive but thrive! Thank you Lord for your revelation to Cindee this morning! Cynthia P. Willow 's website
Isn't that a wonderful article? She is right - and I think in many ways the willow tree embodies how God wants us all to grow. It's almost always found right on the edge of a water source - a tree planted by the rivers of water. It's usually leaning over the water, too - as if it's roots can't quite get enough, and it has to bend over to see that river it stands next to. It's hardy, as well. It's able to handle drought situations better than some other trees. And as Christians, aren't we supposed to stand out from the rest? Aren't we supposed to be someone other people watch and want to watch? I think I've got some more thinking to do on this myself. How about you?
12/18/2013
Proverbs 31The Flawed Proverbs 31 Woman The above article is good for us ladies to remember. Sometimes we look at the Proverbs 31 woman, and we get discouraged that we aren't her. One thing that helped me tremendously as a young mom, was when someone pointed out that Proverbs 31 is a description of a lady after years of experience. God is giving us an end result example, not something that we have to be completely right from the start. It's a wonderful goal to strive for, and a sort of promise of what will come from the struggle we see every day. So when we have those days, where the kids are everywhere, dinner is burned, we've been difficult to live with, and we just don't feel 'Proverbs 31ish, remember, God's still working on you, and He knows where you're headed. Don't let the criticisms rule you.
12/3/2013
Christmas is all about the Presents!A friend of mine was recently talking about how when you're content with what have it can be really hard to think about what you want when someone asks for a list from you for Christmas gift ideas. Honestly, sometimes that's just hard because once you leave a store you can't remember what you saw in there - so really, how can you remember what you wanted? Ok, that's not just me, is it? Is it? Seriously, once we become adults, who wants to be seen as the one that goes around with an arm's length list of gift ideas for themselves? No takers? Probably not. But let's be honest with ourselves. Christmas is ALL about the presents. In reality, as a parent my more recent Christmases have been incredibly wonderful. Because I got bigger presents? No. Because I've been seeing my kids get so INTO Christmas GIVING themselves. The older ones, because they have their own money now, will scour stores, both online and off, to find just the exact right present for someone else. They sit with anticipation waiting for that person to open their gift, and they watch the person's face when they first see it - wanting to video the first moment, and then ask them over and over again if they liked it. It's like a new day dawning for them, you know, the excitement of seeing someone get something that they picked out just for them. And to watch my kids get such joy over that? It's incredible. My younger kids also get excited over the gifts they give each other - but for them it's a bit more down-home. They wrap up their own toys and give them to each other. And they keep track. I don't know how they do it, except for the younger you are the better memory you have, but they know what they gave last year. They love watching their sibling get that gift. And I've learned I have to teach them how to receive the gift, too. They should be received with grace and gratitude, not matter-of-factly, or as if they're entitled. (Might be another post in there with that one.) And now apply it to your Christmas, to MY Christmas.Sometimes we get so caught up in not wanting to seem greedy, or wanting only things, that we can't tell anyone else what they might give us. Someone else made the comment that we should think of presents that the other person would enjoy giving us. Think about that statement for a minute. See, if we refuse to tell someone any ideas, or we insist they don't get us anything, or that we don't even like gifts, we're robbing someone of that overwhelming joy of seeing us open a present they picked out that they think we'll like. You know, God says it's better to give than to receive? Well, that holds true for Christmas, and if you're allowing someone to give you something, then you're giving to them as well - the joy of seeing you love what they gave you. Don't hold back. Let someone else bless you. You'll be blessing them in return.
11/21/2013
Jesus knowsReading in Mark 7 today, I’ve always wondered why Jesus spoke so seemingly harshly to the Syrophenician woman who asked Jesus to cast a devil out of her young daughter. Jesus dealt with each person as an individual. When specific people came to Him with questions, He answered them the way THEY needed to be answered. When the rich man came and asked how He could be saved, Jesus addressed more than just salvation – He addressed the one thing that rich man needed to take off the throne of his heart. He didn’t deal in platitudes, He didn’t sugarcoat. He said what that particular person needed to hear. So Jesus’ response to this Greek woman has always baffled me. It seems so harsh, so unprecedented anywhere else in Jesus’ dealings with anyone else. I mean, look at the woman at the well. She wasn’t fully Jewish, she was what the Jews then called a half-breed, someone the rest of them despised. Yet Jesus treated her with respect, and didn’t act as if she wasn’t worthy. The Greek woman He seems to treat differently, as if she really doesn’t deserve any respect. Frankly, nowhere else in the Gospels does Jesus treat someone this way – whether Jew or Greek. So, I have to wonder. Was something going on in this woman’s life that needed to be addressed? I mean, that IS how Jesus dealt with people, and the Bible doesn’t always tell us what that other person needed. It’s just something Jesus dealt with, in a public way, and yet kept her business private at the same time. There’s a hidden exchange going on in this passage between Jesus and this woman. I’ve always thought it, always wondered at it. Greeks often held themselves superior to other peoples. They had slaves, they saw Jews as inferior, and probably other people, too. So I wonder if this woman had called other people ‘dogs’, had degraded her slaves, treated people so badly that she called them unworthy to eat at her table. What if she was the bigot, and Jesus was pointing this out to her? What if she hated Jews, and now was coming to a Jew for help as if she could hide the darkness and bitterness in her heart towards Jews? What if Jesus’ words rang in her heart like a foghorn, cutting away the cloudy fog of hatred, and opening up to her mind exactly how mean she’d become? In verse 27 of Mark 7, Jesus says something that to me seems particularly pointed. He says, “Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it unto dogs.” I wonder if Jesus said this because it was a quote from her. I wonder if this woman said something similar, or even exactly the same, about someone else dining at her table. I wonder if this was how she was treating her slaves, or a ward under her care, or the poor in her city. It was this quote of Jesus’ that seems to be pointed directly to her, and it was this quote of His that she reacts to. She is humbled by it. In verse 28 of Mark 7, the woman seems to acquiesce to whatever message Jesus is directing at her, and only her. She says that the dogs under the table eat the crumbs that the children leave. She seems to be placing herself in with the dogs under the table now, instead of assuming she’s a child of the household – or even the mistress of the table. In verse 29 of Mark 7, Jesus cites her saying from verse 28 as the reason He will heal her daughter. It was her finally coming to humility that did it. Her finally admitting she wasn’t superior to others, that she wasn’t better than the Jews – than Jesus Himself. She considered herself going to an inferior to help, but she wasn’t helped until Jesus made her see the darkness in her heart and helped her overcome it. So, while Jesus in this passage seems uncharacteristically harsh, I wonder if it isn’t exactly what the Greek woman needed to hear. I understand the passage doesn’t go into specifics on this woman, this is all conjecture on my part, and I certainly wouldn’t draw any doctrines out of this speculation. But from other instances, it does seem to make sense. (Yes, I know - my writer-senses are tingling. I sense a Biblical fiction story coming out of this.) And it speaks to me, too. Jesus always dealt with people as individuals, giving them what they needed to hear. So often we think of Jesus as saving the world, and He did. But Jesus also deals with me as an individual. He deals with me on a personal level, He will address things to me, things that apply to me in a special and personal way. Things that perhaps the rest of the world doesn’t know, but Jesus knows, and Jesus won’t let them remain in me just because other people don’t know. Jesus addresses them, and expects me to come clean, and expects me to just submit to Him. And Jesus loves me. It’s safe to do that. It’s safe to let Jesus be a personal savior, knowing the ins and outs of my mind and heart. Same for you, too. I might not know the ins and outs of your personal walk, but Jesus does. And you can bet that while His way may seem harsh for the moment, it’s for your good, for your best. Let Jesus be your personal Savior, not just a name on the page.
11/12/2013
November 12th, 2013Saturday and Sunday morning I was getting discouraged about my writing. I have several projects started, several plotted, and a few in the beginning stages of mapping out. But I can't seem to get the one that I'm on finished satisfactorily. I feel like I'm pushing through a fast-moving creek going the wrong way. On the way to church Sunday morning I had the thought that maybe God really doesn't want me concentrating on my writing - maybe I should just give up. I don't want to, mind you - but I was really wondering.
Then I got to church - a couple and their grown daughter who moved away a few years ago came back to town for a weekend visit. The daughter stopped me after the service and told me she's been following my blog and that she really enjoys it. She said she thought I was very good at expressing my thoughts in writing. I'm not repeating her words to get a pat on the back, but rather to say I felt like God gave me that little word of encouragement from an unexpected source. She didn't have to say anything at all, but she did. And I felt like it was just a breath of fresh air from Heaven. So I gave myself a bit of a day off yesterday - not alot of social media, no pressure to get to writing if I didn't feel anything. Sometimes Jesus told the disciples to come apart and rest, because He knew they needed the lessening of pressure at times. I needed that too, and today I'm thinking better. What a blessing to have gotten that one word of encouragement from her. She may not have realized how much it meant to me. I want her to know how much I needed it that day. Thank you. Sometimes you just need a little bit of encouragement, and isn't it nice when God brings it without you asking? |
AuthorI'm Sherry Chamblee, aspiring author of Christian fiction, mom of six, wife to a cool dude, and caregiver to his granny. Besides that, I am just little old me - it's just a phrase, I'm not really old, honest. Check out my new release!
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