On Eagles Wings 4/8/2015

Good Morning,

  My coffee this morning is Door County Cherry Crème. I am making another long road trip for work today and won't be home until later tonight. The thought of arriving home to my wife and our crazy dog will carry me through and make coming home that much better.

Last weekend my Nephew Nick and I were able to approach an American Bald Eagle and get close enough to snap a good picture with a cell phone. Seeing an eagle is always a big thrill for me. The site of this grand bird immediately takes me to a biblical place in my mind and gives me a picture of rest and strength. Knowing that I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Knowing that He alone is my Shepherd and leads me to rest in green pastures.

Isaiah 40:31King James Version (KJV)
³¹ But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

There are many things in nature including sounds that will cause me to stop and think about a passage of scripture, praise God, or just reflect on His greatness. Waterfalls especially remind me of His abundant blessings. A baby crying reminds me that He is the Creator of all life. A sunrise always has me thinking about the resurrection of Jesus.

Take a moment to look around today and thank God for what you see. He painted that living picture just for you, just in that moment. Capture that thought and keep it. Ask the Holy Spirit to lead you to a passage of scripture that you can recall when you see that sight or others like it again.

This helps me to walk each day knowing that I am never alone.


Deuteronomy 31:6New King James Version (NKJV)
⁶ Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.”

Have a great day. God bless,
Marty

In His Shadow 4/8/2015

Good Morning,

Headed out of the door with a cup of Door County Blueberry Cobbler Coffee in my hand. I have a bit of a road trip today. I will be just South of Door County! I wonder if I would be missed at work if I just headed a little further North for a couple of days?

Psalm 91:1-2

91 He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
² I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress;
My God, in Him I will trust.”

Above is a picture of our Springer Spaniel Gibbs. I was training Gibbs that day to retrieve ducks on the water. He was just a year old. It is hard to train a puppy to do a lot of things. But to sit still and wait until he is told to leave is very hard for them to do. The water is very inviting and the temptation to jump in and just swim around is almost overwhelming. I recall that day very well. I started throwing the training duck just a few yards from shore. Gibbs waited and retrieved on command very well. I then threw one out to the middle of the pond. This was further than he had ever swam before. He waited and when his command to go was sounded he didn't move. He looked up at me as if to say "are you sure"? In the picture you can see my shadow over him. I reassured him that he could do it with a soft voice and told him to go. He flew off of the shore and swam toward his mark. The whole time he was swimming I was encouraging him with every yard. When he returned we celebrated by rolling around on the ground and playing. His confidence and trust just soared that day. He was under my shadow. He did not know that I was wearing a life jacket and would have gone in after him if he needed help. He found out that day that I would not ask him to do what he could not do. He could trust me.

God is like that. He coddles us under His wing, but expects us to soar in our service to Him when asked to do so. He sets us up to jump from the shore and trust Him not to let us drown in our efforts. He is always there when we look up and listen. He never leads us astray.

Gibbs is a very confident hunter now. But he still knows that the best place is next to me waiting for instructions. Friends, do the same thing with God. Draw close to Him and await His word of guidance, then jump into action, knowing you are in His shadow.

God bless,

Marty

Lighting Candles 4/6/2015

Good Morning,

Just a little Door County Cinnamon Sugar Biscotti Coffee goes a long way on a somewhat cold morning here in Wisconsin.

 

Philippians 4:6-7
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

No doubt, some of the things going on in the world leave me with a heavy heart. The pilot who purposely crashed his airliner, killing all that were on board just sickens me. The thought of a group of terrorists going on to a campus in Kenya and killing hundreds of Christians sickens me. I speak for many who feel the same way. But what I am not seeing is a bigger call to prayer from evangelicals around the world. The kind of prayer that fills stadiums and shakes heaven's gates. I am not seeing the lazy praying knees of the overly concerned, packing churches and requesting prayer for God to intervene.

The title today is "Lighting Candles". I am not suggesting that candles be lit and a dollar spent so someone else can pray for the world we are concerned about. It is a metaphor for the following statement. "If you are not busy lighting candles, don't complain about the darkness." (Anonymous)

Don't complain and whine about what is going on if you are not willing to dirty your knees and cry out for a lost world. It's time to get serious about prayer and turning our world around. We cry about the senseless murders and we should. Yet we have thousands of babies slaughtered each day in abortion clinics and that doesn't bring us to our knees.

We have things a little backwards here friends. It's time for a change of heart.

Food for thought.

Marty

A Resurrected Life 4/6/2015

Good Morning,

Monday has arrived and I believe Monday's were made to lead us to the next weekend. My coffee of choice is Door County Coconut Crush.

I had a very nice Easter weekend spent with a nephew and my dad. We worked hard on Saturday, then enjoyed a great dinner and all three of us watched a basketball game. It made leaving for home very hard yesterday.

Sunday we celebrated the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Any Christian and even non-believers can tell you that Easter is the day that Jesus rose from the grave and conquered the sting of death. There is eternal life for those who have received Jesus as Lord and Savior. ( John 3:16)

But what about our Earthly lives? Those too are to be resurrected.

John 10:10New King James Version (NKJV)
¹⁰ The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

A resurrected life is not one of more toys, a better spouse, or even "a spouse". It is not one of more riches, or glamorous jobs. No it is not. But the abundant life that Jesus speaks of is a life that lives to the fullest for others. A life that is content with where it is. An abundant life is one that lives like it knows that someday it will leave this world for heaven, but as long as it is here it works to love others, and lives to spread the word of Jesus Christ. This is a happy, abundant, resurrected life. This is what the Holy Spirit who indwells in a Christian can live. An abundant resurrected life is one that can see and count it's blessings and learn from the past, not live in it. It is a life, that despite bad circumstances can praise God.

A resurrected abundant life does not go and repeat the same mistakes over and over. Not feeling resurrected? Try keeping yourself in the "zone". The Jesus zone! Not the "I will try this for awhile and if it doesn't work out I am going back to my unhappy, self centered, self controlled un-resurrected life. Friends this never works. I see way too many people who claim to be Christians base their happiness on circumstances alone. Their faces are paralyzed into Mr. or Mrs. Sad Sack Grumpy!

My Dear readers,. If this is you it is time to put on you big boy or big girl pants and drop the pity party that Satan so much wants you to have. Christ overcame the grave and that takes great power. He can resurrect your life and put it back together. But you have to trust Him to do it in a way that is best for you. It might not be the vision you have. Once you surrender to His love and leadership you have started to live a resurrected, abundant life.

Too much for a Monday? Read this again tomorrow.

God bless,
Marty

A Man For All Seasons 4/3/2015

Good Morning,

Friday has shown up again and with open arms I embrace the day. My mug is filled with Door County Mocha Mint Coffee and I will enjoy some now and later.

Colossians 4:5-6New International Version (NIV)
⁵ Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. ⁶ Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

I am getting older by the minute and as I reflect on life I have to say that I really enjoyed it. When I was a boy I enjoyed baseball, football, toy army men and playing backyard games like hide and seek. I always have liked to fish and still enjoy being outside. As I reached my twenties I still played football and baseball but added a passion for hunting. I still like football and baseball, but can't play anymore.  I would play hide and seek, but would get lost now. But my passion for hunting is as great as it has ever been. Although, it takes me longer to recover from a weekend of hunting than it did 20 years ago!

I noticed that with time my passions are still there but they have developed to meet my age and my desires. 

One of my greatest fears is to become useless at church. Things within churches change and one needs to change, to stay relevant. But one also needs to keep in touch with his or her past in order to lead into the future. It is a fine balance. I find my prayer to be in line with the Scripture above. "Lord, please deliver me from becoming a museum full of aging memories, dusty, dull, irrelevant and not in tune. Help me to make room for new memories.  At the same time please help to keep me attached to my past, to the great and honest truth of Your timeless and Holy Word. And help me to still sing the great music of the ages, and still keep in touch with the world today."

Enjoy your Friday. Prepare yourself to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ this Sunday.

God bless,

Marty

Easter Eggs And Christians

Good Morning,

I hope this finds each and every reader well and blessed. My coffee pot has brewed some Door County Chocolate Cherry Coffee for me this morning. I woke up to the aroma teasing my sense of smell this morning.

In my life, I cannot remember celebrating an Easter without dyed, hard boiled eggs. It was always a lot of fun and still is to dye the eggs and write notes or names on them.

Eggs were often associated with pagan festivals and celebrations of spring. Eggs were symbolic of rebirth and new life, making them an appropriate part of the celebration of spring and the new life that comes after winter. It was common for eggs to be decorated in conjunction with these spring festivals, and common to see these colored eggs given as gifts to friends and family. The symbolism of rebirth fit well with the spring holiday of Easter, as it is the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection. The practice of decorating eggs and giving them as gifts was adopted by Christians and included in their Easter celebrations.

In the Easter egg I see a picture of a shell that needs to be removed in order for the egg to be taken and eaten. If one were to eat the shell with the egg ,it would be a bad experience. If Jesus had not risen from the grave He would have been nothing less than a good man with great morals. Good to learn from but nothing much to base eternal life on. I see the shell of the egg as the stone over the tomb of Jesus and although the inside is beautiful it needs to have the shell removed before eating. That egg waits until someone with the desire and skill to remove the shell comes along. Jesus was in the tomb as He said he would be.  The stone was rolled away and eternal life was started for those who believe on the name of Jesus.  That's what I think of when I peel and egg shell.

So next time you eat an Easter egg think about the resurrection. It adds much more to Easter than some chocolate bunny.

God bless,
Marty

Who Wants Some Fruit? The Fruit Of The Spirit. 4/1/2015

Good Morning,
April 1st has arrived and I wonder how many pranks for April Fools Day will be sent my way. So I better coffee up with a big mug of Door County Blueberry Cobbler. That's my plan and I am sticking to it.

The Fruit of the Spirit. Let's consider the term Fruit to be plural, meaning more than one.  What is the Fruit of the Spirit? Galatians 5:22-23 tells us, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” The fruit of the Holy Spirit is the result of the Holy Spirit’s presence in the life of a Christian. The Bible makes it clear that everyone receives the Holy Spirit the moment he or she believes in Jesus Christ (Romans 8:9; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians 1:13-14). One of the primary purposes of the Holy Spirit coming into a Christian's life is to change that life. It is the Holy Spirit's job to conform us to the image of Christ, making us more like Him.

The fruit of the Holy Spirit is in direct major contrast with the acts of our sinful nature in Galatians 5:19-21, “The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.” This passage describes all people, to varying degrees, when they do not know Christ and therefore are not under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Our sinful flesh produces certain types of fruit that reflect our own nature, and the Holy Spirit produces types of fruit that reflect His nature.

All of the fruits are moral qualities not supernatural powers. There is a perception that exists that being filled with the Spirit makes us miracle workers who perform great signs and wonders. Miracles still happen through Christians. But this is not the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is a life that exemplifies  Christ and is characterized by the fruits of the Spirit, which are moral qualities. Not one is a miracle. The greatest miracle is the one that is happening inside of the Christian who desires to walk in the Spirit. These moral qualities exude from within and rise over our sinful nature. This is the true miracle.

Fruit for thought?

Marty