Oh, Hogwash

Do you ever get weary of hearing the same words over and over? Repeat, repeat, repeat or nag, nag, nag?

What happens to those words?

After so much repetition we by instinct begin to block it out. Selective hearing maybe?

It works for me.

Depending on the words recited reflects the inner soul of a person. We tend to repeat ourselves with the same people we believe closed up shop the first time we spoke.

Why?

We think our words are important.

We believe we are helping.

We think we know more than those around us.

We are striving to get attention. What?

Chatter is one thing; a vocabulary with substance is another.

Chitchat or blather quickly becomes old or useless especially when one is trying to get a point across that is blatantly wrong. Listening to such futility breeds dissension.

However there are those who run off at the mouth as a marketing tool.

“What you hear you will eventually believe” which is why knowing the truth from lies is of utmost importance.

Impatience is born out of broken records. Once you know the drill listening becomes a chore.

Proverbs 26:28 “A lying tongue hates those it hurts, and a flattering mouth works ruin.”

Reading that verse makes you quickly think of those who have lied to you or sent you off with a list of abject remarks.

Rather harsh isn’t it? Not if you are the one on the receiving end of the lies; it makes perfect sense.

If you have ever been lied to repeatedly by the same person, their compulsion becomes hogwash. The lies become such a way of life to them, they forget which lie they told and when.  Questioning their integrity is an all out hypocrisy considering they really believe their own lies and are getting away with it.
The Bible specifically spells out our perjuring society today.

2 Timothy 4:3, 4 “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”

Does ignorance to the truth have significance for the liar?

“Amazing Grace
How sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see.”

The Bible is the Word of God and is the basis for all truth.

Many have never seen a Bible, are uneducated due to circumstances out of their control or are too busy running around in diapers.  Notable excuses should forgive ignorance.

If you sincerely try to read and understand the truth, the veil of ignorance may be excused until it is removed by his Amazing Grace.

If you have a Bible but never read it, you have no excuse for your ignorance.

If you reject the Bible out of rebellion and stubborn pride, your ignorance is simply ignorant and you have no reason to complain about your sorry life.

Lying is an insult to our intelligence. The liar is so consumed with “self admiration” not believing them reeks of stupidity. Twisting the truth has become the norm hoping to obliterate those who live by it as being irrelevant.

Proverbs 10:10 “Whoever winks maliciously causes grief, and a chattering fool comes to ruin.”

A thick line has been drawn in this nation between “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth” and hogwash.

As those with “itching ears” rumble in the mud of their own blindness, we who wait in God’s word will emerge with the same mercy granted to us when our eyes were covered in smudge.

I think we should start rounding up as many water hoses as we can find.

After we help them wash the mud stuck to their eyes, we can show them the way to the cross.

Photo by Randy Harrison
http://www.pbase.com/jrandyh

https://craigmotor.wordpress.com/2012/12/05/now-the-truth-is-coming-out/

http://flashtrafficblog.wordpress.com/2012/12/05/growing-fears-over-syrian-use-of-wmd-echo-plot-of-forthcoming-damascus-countdown-novel/

http://thewayeverlasting.com/2012/12/05/quote-fully-human/

Copyright @ 2012 All Rights Reserved

Treading Water

Lately I have noticed a change in myself. For those who don’t believe God can change you, think again.

The last few years I really discovered faith or how little I had. It had been sitting on a shelf in a box I finally opened. Covered in dust, it was time to explore the true meaning of faith. Wiping the dust off, my eyes were opened to how faithful God is and unfaithful we are.

Faith grows when you center God around your life. Faith grows when you place God first. All of a sudden you see God is bigger than all your problems when before you couldn’t find him. Faith seeps deep in your heart and soul and becomes a part of you.

Seeking God for a certain answered prayer may not show up as soon as you would like. The process produces faith incrementally but assuredly. You may feel like a turtle slowly crossing the road, but the slower pace may save the turtle’s life. Don’t knock slow beginnings.

Faith seems to be more tangible as if I can touch it. The reality of faith plugged in has altered my thinking.  I want faith to be alive and yet settle within me to the point I live it naturally.

Blogging and reading so many faith filled words from other Christian bloggers has aided in this upgrade in my spiritual cultivation. Maybe writing faith filled words filters my system shaking the doubt away. And I avoided blogging.

God kept nudging me to blog with that annoying little nudge you recognize as his.

I hate to be the one to say “I told you so” but God can certainly say that to me now.

He knew I would run into others in cyber space that would write their hearts desire for him as I have.

He knew I would make friends around the world I may never physically meet, but have a spiritual connection that overrides the physical.

God wants me to be a simple servant’s voice for him to share his gospel across the 4 corners of the earth using this technological miracle known as a laptop.

God knew best. God knew my faith would explode if I followed my heart’s intentions because the Holy Spirit lives inside of my heart.

Explaining the progression lately has to be God. The guarantee of his faithfulness has birthed a yearning for his presence to a new level. Just when you feel you have stepped up closer to his throne, another step appears. His hand reaches for mine to guide me toward the next move. As I slide my hand into his, strength extends his power for me to believe trusting him is all I need.

For those of you who do not understand faith as I did, allow God to show you how it works. I may have a long way to go, but I left in one more area of my journey of getting to know God.

One more note: the risk of jumping off the faith cliff may produce awesome results; however God doesn’t necessarily expect us all to be great swimmers to start with.

Treading water gives you time to think the process through. Either way, God is walking on the water to catch you when you feel yourself sinking. Matthew 14:22-33.

http://terry1954.wordpress.com/2012/03/25/do-you-trust/

http://ofdustandkings.com/2012/03/25/prayer-field/

http://samuelatgilgal.wordpress.com/2012/03/22/christ-is-like-a-river/

Copyright @ 2012 All Rights Reserved

unlikely God

Our cat is very vocal. One thing for sure is you know where you stand with her. She is 9 years old, quite active, and has been featured in contests and articles I have written about her.  I must admit she is a beautiful cat. When we took her in she was a feral cat. It has taken a long time to get her to be loving and caring; even during those times it is on her terms. My husband questions that even now.

Maxicat

People say our pets don’t speak our language but ours does. She answers me when I call her name, “Maxicat?”  When she walks into the room where we are sitting she announces herself. 

She speaks the most when she is hungry! She won’t stop meowing!!! Recently I have been feeding her Meow Mix Select with crab and salmon. You will not get out of the kitchen without feeding her this delicacy. Her persistent “loud” cry is enough to get anyone’s attention.

This month our Pastor has been speaking on “Whispers from God.”  I am not advocating that God speaks like our cat but maybe he is trying to get our attention. God speaks in many different ways.

In my own life he has spoken with words like pictures that I see in front of me. He has allowed the Holy Spirit to warn me when I was about to make a wrong decision. At times the warning was so strong I would almost feel sick. God has spoken to me through his word countless times which helps me now understand why the Bible is so important. He has spoken to me through other people. In a “dark place” as our Pastor calls them,  God gave me a vision. This vision changed my life.

I have learned God uses anything and anyone to get our attention. He usually does not scream at us with a loud cry like my cat, no! he is a lot more creative than that. We need to make it a priority to be alert, waiting for God to speak to us in his way, in his time. Doing so not only gives us guidance and direction, it helps solidify our relationship with him which is the reason he created us .   For more information on “Whispers from God” please go to http://www.unlikelyclay.com

I’m off to see the …..Nope not the Wizard

Dorothy ran down the yellow brick road off to see the wizard? Wonder if she really knew what she was looking for. We knew she wanted to go home, but do you think going by way of a wizard is the way to go home?

The Israelites made a 40 year journey that was only meant for 11 days. I can honestly say that my journey with God has been down many yellow brick roads but wasn’t looking for a wizard.  Not quite sure what I was looking for, or where it was.  I hoped I would know when I saw it. I was no different than many who look for God in all the wrong places. “Yes!” That was it. I was looking for God but the God I wanted.

Dorothy may have thought the wizard had the answer to getting her back home only to find he wasn’t a wizard at all.  Her glass slippers could no more get her back home except in her dream.

There are so many looking for God and they don’t even know it. The beach is my favorite place in the whole world. The wind blowing, the white sand and the infinite ocean was a sight I could never get enough of. When I was young I would stand and watch it wondering what was really out there. Now I know.

I was looking for God and didn’t know it. The vastness of the ocean, the

Photograph by John Randolph Harrison http://www.pbase.com/jrandyh

beauty it beholds, and the fact when you look out you see it goes on forever.Isn’t that just like God? He goes on forever and forever.

God’s Appointed

It is a sad day in the world of technology. The loss of a genius like Steve Jobs affects everyone and by that I mean everyone on the face of the earth in the last few decades.

I believe in every generation God brings to life those who would further his agenda even if they had no idea they were doing it.

The Moses’s of the world are needed. They often live in the wilderness before they find their place and it was no different for Steve Jobs. 

Where would the world be without the gift of music we received from Beethoven or the genius of Albert Einstein? 

The world of art changed with Picasso. 

Communication made its debut with Alexander Graham Bell and the telephone.

Let us not forget the courage of the man who stood in the storm of lightning to bring about electricity. My research has shown me I would not be able to see what I am writing right now without my bifocals that Benjamin Franklin invented.

The skeptics would say it was all just by chance these people and many others like them  were born at the time and place they were born. I beg to differ.

Acts 17 :26 says, “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.”

I believe Steve Jobs 56 years on this earth joins the club of those who came before him with their inventions, art, music and now modern technology that God ordained. I also believe he died way before his time.

Their gifts changed history,  gave the world something that had never been, and opened doors that have never closed.  Their gift was their legacy. Their legacy was created long before their time. Their time on this earth has in more ways than we will ever know made our lives so much better.