When I was growing up, a good friend of ours, Bob Munger, wrote a little booklet you may have read, called "MY HEART-CHRIST'S HOME".
He says that as a young christian, when Christ entered his heart, in the joy of this new relationship, he told him "Lord, I want this heart of mine to be yours. I want you to settle down here and be fully at home. Let me show you around so you can be comfortable"...
Then he walks with Jesus into each room of his heart, now Christ's home...
The Study...
Or the library, the study of the mind. It's a small room with thick walls, but it's important as it is the control room of the house.As Jesus looked around at the books and magazines on the shelf, and at the pictures on the walls....Dr.Munger says...
"As I followed his gaze, I became uncomfortable. Strangely enough, I had not felt bad about this room before, but now that he was there with me looking at these things, I was embarrassed. There were some books on the shelves his eyes were too pure to look at. On the table were a few magazines a christian has no business reading. As for the pictures on the walls - the imaginations and thoughts of my mind - some of these were shameful".
"Red faced, I turned to Him and said 'Master, I know this room really needs to be cleaned up and made over. Will you help me change it to the way it ought to be?"
And of course, Jesus agreed, and He began to replace the old with the new, His life changing new.
Jesus told him... "First of all, take all the materials you are reading and viewing which are not true, good, pure and helpful, and throw them out! Now put on the empty shelves the books of the Bible. Fill your library with Scripture and meditate on them day and night. As for the pictures on the walls, you wil have difficulty controlling these images, but I have something that will help", and He gave me a full sized portrait of Himself. "Hang this centrally, on the wall of your mind."... I did, and I have discovered through the years that when my thoughts are centered on Christ, the awareness of His presence causes wrong and impure thoughts to back away."...
You get the idea... he took Jesus from room to room, and this little 28 page booklet is a picture of our hearts, as rooms in a home. And seeing each 'room' through Jesus' eyes, made a vivid impression on me as a teenager when I read this.
Just like a home, our hearts and minds have different parts... emotions, fears, thoughts, gifts, hopes, joys, .... and He wants to be the Lord over all of them!
Better yet, He has promised to enter into each of those places, and change and rearrange them, so that our Heart truly will be His home!...
Some years ago when we lived in Austin, Texas, my husband had left the corporate business world and we headed into our own publishing business.
At the same time, his ongoing love for antiques, particularly the kind that men collect, the early west expansion, gold mining, etc. , made it a natural to have a small antique shop, as we published a book on the subject.
We found the perfect location!
On the highway south of Austin, a red and white 2 story building with the flag flying out front. We named the whole thing Great American, and the real breakdown of that was...
The lower floor was Great American Antiques...
The upstairs was Great American Publishing...
When the phone rang and they asked for the marketing department for our recently first published book... I put them on hold and ran upstairs to tell my hubby there was a call for the 'publishing business'. :)
I designed this little business card, which perfectly pictured our building and have saved it all these years.
We had some good days in that little building. The school bus even dropped our kids off there on their way home from school.
When we published the first book, we casually saw (anxiously waited for) the mail truck outside the window and walked (ran!) to see how many orders were in the box.
This was also the little office where we published Charlie Schreiner's book on the 100 year anniversary of his YO Ranch in Kerrville. We have a copy of the book he gave us, bound in longhorn hide which sits in my hubby's office.
It was in Austin where we met Charles Harrelson, and he and Joe walked across the highway and sat with their coffee in Dairy Queen as they talked about life, and he shared PART of who he was. The rest we found out later...
More chapters from the journey. All 3 of our kids were baptized in Austin. My dad flew in from California and joined our pastor in the baptism. These were 3 kids whose salvation and baptism we wanted 'signed, sealed and delivered!'...
Austin, Texas was a good chapter.
FEAR...
There are so many things in this world that get my heart beating too fast, and my pulse throbbing, not to mention my imagination racing to the possible finish line of whatever is causing the... fear.
F false
E evidence
A appearing
R real
Isn't that true?
When it strikes our hearts, it feels so drastic, and we almost get swallowed up in the nameless, faceless scenarios and possibilities, especially if it's in the middle of the night.
Satan works overtime during the darkness... it's where he is the most comfortable, in the dark places of our minds, and during the night hours when everything bad seems worse!
Do you know how many scriptures speak against fear?
Lots!
Why did God include so many 'fear nots' in His Word?
Because he knows the way our minds work. He understands how quickly we become fearful. He understands that even when we don't WANT to be a victim of fear, many times we are.
He also knows that the answer to fear is faith. He goes to the bottom of the whole fear issue when he says to trust him with everything. All of it! Like my dad used to say, when he studied the word 'all'.
All he could find 'all' to mean is 'all'.
(It probably goes without saying, but the kind of fear I am talking about is totally apart from fearing God, which includes all the honor and respect that he is due because he is God, the awe and fear of God is in our hearts as his children.)
The fear of man, circumstances, finances, health, relationships and the whole bag of stuff that we deal with in our lives, that kind of fear is what traps us and trips us too often.
As the years have gone by, I find myself being more afraid of being fearful than daring to just plant my feet firmly and trust God. It's because the lessons learned from living with fear so many times have caused me to understand more quickly that fear is a black hole, and I don't want to be in that hole! It's for sure God doesn't want me to be there either! As I have held my ground in faith, I have learned new lessons and my faith has grown. Just like God knew it would. :)
It's a lifetime of learning, and re-learning... and it's back to the simple basics of what God says. Trust me with all of it!
The great lesson is always that he is faithful, every single time we dare to trust him.
Sometimes I still try to take a shortcut and figure it out myself, or wring my hands and sweat over things, but before long, I know... LET IT GO... TRUST GOD.
"For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." 2 Tim.1:7
I love to see our 2 youngest granddaughters dressed alike. They are 3 and 4 years old, and each of them loves their sister so much, kind of like 2 other sisters many years ago... They look like 2 little peas in a pod, so did we.
Now...
and then...
We grew out of wanting to be dressed alike, and so will they, but we are sure enjoying these years of watching them and re-living our own memories.
How to Overcome Discouragement...
My dad wrote this little booklet way back in 1965. It still speaks to me today, and to others too, as it has been re-printed many many times through the years. Dad always talked about the importance of the 2 R's in our lives as christians, regarding dealing with temptation and sin.
Recognize it
Refuse it
When we begin to 'entertain' discouragement, we get pulled in before we know it, our spirits droop and we lose sight of who is able to handle it. It can lead us into a great big pity party or worse, depression.
Dad wrote about 2 frogs.
"I am reminded of the story of 2 frogs that fell into a large cream crock. The one frog gave up swimming and immediately sank to the bottom. The second frog said to himself, 'well, if I'm going down, I'm not going down without a struggle.' So, he kicked and paddled and churned, and the first thing he knew he was sitting on a cake of butter!"
Which frog are you?
I've been the first frog many times. I have also been the second frog. What a difference between the 2!
Dad goes further in this booklet, "I believe there are biblical grounds for believing that discouragement is a sin. Heb.1:1-2 says 'throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and... let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.'
I use the term 'the sin of discouragement' because in Rom 14.23 we read "everything that does not come from faith is sin." Discouragement is not of faith. It is part of the doubt/belief pattern.
There are some who think that discouragement is a valid part of the spiritual life.They have been deceived by discouragement, perhaps even to the point of "feeling spiritual" when they are discouraged. Let us be clear about this right now---discouragement is not one of the requisites for spiritual discipline, discipleship and development.
Whatever its source, discouragement does not come from God. God is "the God of all encouragemnt". Discouragement often gets hold of a person who is sensitive, sensitive to God and very sensitive to self. It is a form of doubt and unbelief, which in turn is connected with disobedience. Where there is unbelief there is disobedience, as 2 sides of the same coin.
When we recognize discouragement, we must learn to refuse it. The more radical the rejection, the more thorough the cure. The secret is to look away from self, to Christ, in faith, believing Him to deliver you. This is My work. You cannot do it, but be very firm and definite in your faith, EXPECTING Me to take care of it."
So many books have been written about discouragement that it is obviously something we all deal with from time to time, no doubt more often than we should.
As with everything in our lives, there is a solution. I can't tell you how many times through the years I have thought of this little booklet, and been lead to apply the same principles in my life.
Recognize it
Refuse it
Thanks Dad, for always speaking the truth, in your words and in your life.
We have 8 fantastic grandchildren! That's all of us at Christmas,even my hubby, whose head was cut off!
I love the names their parents have given each of them...
Courtney
Cassidy
Gage
Lainey
Avery
Crew
Gracie
Faith
When they were born, we didn't really know them yet, so the names were special, but still only names, some of them different than what we were used to...
NOW... I can't even imagine any name but the one that belongs to them. They have grown into their names... that is who they are. Isn't it funny how each name fits the person? In the case of these 8, not only is each name perfect, we smile at the mention of their names. We picture their faces, their personalities, the special ways each of them express themselves, the funny things they say, and the many things that make them uniquely them.
God knows my name.
He calls me His child.
When He made me, He knew who I would be. He knew that I would grow into my name. He knew that my life would be a journey, and that all along the way, His plans for me were already known to him. I wonder how many times I have made Him smile... or how often His eyes filled with tears, as he has watched me make choices in my life, good ones and bad.
I'm so glad that my name is known to Him, and that it is already recorded in HIS book, now and for eternity.
The recipient of a lot of my blog writing is... me.
I preach to the choir.
I am the choir.
It's not a planned thing, but when something is on my mind, often it is there because God is speaking to me, even when I think I am just jotting down my own thoughts. Sometimes I don't even realize that until later, long after I've written it and read it back... down the road.
The words often mirror what His thoughts are producing in my heart.
There are also times when I have almost NO thoughts. God is still there, working in my heart, but the words don't come.
Have you found this to be true in your own blogging? The thoughts that prompt what we write are so often the very messages God is speaking to us, and as we share them, WE are the ones who are the most blessed.
It's so often HIS word, becoming a little more clear in our own thinking.
There are also plenty of blogs that are just random chatter, and those words come spilling out on these pages too.
All of it together is a reflection of who we are and what is going on in our lives.
And something else...
You are also the choir.
I hear it in your words and the things you share from your hearts. They often mirror some of the same things I am thinking about.
I am so glad that you are a part of these pages and thoughts. I think we make a pretty good choir.
Happy New Year to each one of you, I can't wait to see what God has ahead for this choir of His, as we continue to share our journeys on these pages. It's a joy to walk beside you, and you have enriched my life.
I always forget how much I love Christmas, all through the house. I think 'I won't do it all this year', but then... I get started and remember how much fun it is and how the lights twinkle and the colors sparkle.
Most of all... I remember what JOY fills my heart because of this day, when Jesus came as a baby, to begin the fulfilling of the prophecy that would change the world forever.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Not my knee season, but my husband's. He had a right knee replacement on October 26. The surgery was the easy part. The rehab has been more difficult, but so well worth it. He injured his knee in high school football, and through the years it kept getting worse. It was definitely time.
What does this have to do with me?
Everything!
I know that people have had this surgery who live alone, and they have coped and regained their strength and knee function but... every day of this rehab both Joe and I are reminded that it has taken BOTH of us to get him back to normal. Not to mention, that during surgery, somehow... his right shoulder rotator cuff went south, they think a tendon, or the rotator itself. So rehab has been a doozie!
He is doing better every day, and so am I.
We have been reminded many times in the past couple of months that we are 'fearfully and wonderfully made, and that "when one member suffers, the whole body suffers with it."
He's definitely on the mend, and we are so thankful for the advances in medicine that have made this surgery almost routine... almost. :)
I told you the funny story here of how my dad played word games with us as kids to help us stay interested and to learn the scriptures.
One of my least favorites verses growing up was...
"Be not weary in well doing, for in due season you shall reap, if you faint not."
The 2 parts I struggled with were...
"In due season"
and
"If you faint not."
I remember many times when dad would say:
"Be not weary"... and I knew all the rest by heart. He was reminding me of the truth of the verse with just those 3 words, and I kind of inwardly groaned, knowing the rest of it already.
"In due season" meant then, as it still does today... in God's time. It means to keep moving, one step at a time, even when there is no visible sign that what we are weary of is about to end.
"If you faint not" takes it a step further... keep trusting and going about our daily lives, and God will answer in his time and way... if we don't quit! We will reap if we don't give up. So often it is almost overwhelming NOT to give up hope when we are waiting for God's answers. It's as though we think there might be another choice.
When the rubber meets the road... we are to stand, and God will meet the need we are so weary of asking him about... if we don't give up hope. I have also found that he has met my needs even when it has been a very weak trust on my part, at best.
It's a call to remember that God is alive and well, and our instruction is to keep trusting and knowing that his solution is coming... to STAND firm on God's promises which we already know from past experiences, are worthy of our faith.
I have probably been reminded of that verse 100's if not 1000's of times through the years. I only need to say those 3 words... "Be not weary"... and I already am standing straighter and taller in my faith.
Why? Because I know that the solutions are coming, that his promises are true, and that a lifetime of experiences have proven this truth to me, many times over.
So now, many years later, I still may have an inward groan when I am 'weary' of waiting, but I know with certainty that the 'due season' is coming, and that I will not quit!
When I was growing up, a good friend of ours, Bob Munger, wrote a little booklet you may have read, called "MY HEART-CHRIST'S HOME".
