Tag Archives: responsibility

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Tomatoes!

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tomato8oz_Duke's_MayoOne of my favorite things about this time of year is tomatoes! I love tomatoes!  I especially love them ripe, sliced and in between two slices of bread, smothered with Dukes Mayo and sprinkled with pepper!  I also like them green, battered and fried crispy brown!

Another thing that I like about tomatoes is watching them grow! One day you have a little yellow flower and the next a small green ball.  The green ball continues to grow and change it’s shape and then it starts to change it’s color.  It eventually turns into a big, red, ripe and juicy tomato.  When it turns red, ripe and juicy, you better pick it and use it or it will rot!

We are a lot like tomatoes! We are green and growing or ripe and rotting! The difference between us and the tomato is that we get to make the choice!

What are you? You are green and growing when you realize that you don’t know everything and there is still much for you to learn!  You are ripe and rotting when you think that you have arrived and simply seek to live life on cruise control!

I want to be green and growing! I want to learn all of the amazing new things that God puts in front of me everyday!  It is exciting to think that everyday is another day for me to grow and change!  God is still working on me!

I have changed a lot through the years and the most incredible thing is this:  Some of my most amazing change and growth is still in front of me!  Enjoy letting God grow you today!

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How Old Are You?

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David's been crying because I never mention him in a blog - so here ya go!
David's been crying because I never mention him in a blog - so here ya go!

Last night we talked about “What’s The Big Deal About Age?” We are working our way through 1 Samuel 3 and we were taking a look at old Eli and Young Samuel and discovered that there are some things that we need to learn wherever we are in our journey!

The Problem With Getting Old! Getting old does not have to be a bad thing.  In fact getting old can be a good thing, if we will learn to age with Grace!  But for a lot of people, the problem with getting old comes when you get to a point where you stop learning.  Eli was loosing his physical vision and had already lost most of his spiritual vision.  He was more than likely loosing his ability to hear physically and he had certainly already lost his ability to hear spiritually.  There came a point in his growing older that he stopped learning.  There came a point when he just stopped seeing and hearing the things of God!  What a tragedy!

As we get older – we begin to lose our physical senses! As we lose our physical senses, we need to enhance and grow our spiritual senses.  As the physical dies – the spiritual should grow.  As the flesh grows old, the spirit should grow strong!  Getting old does not have to be a bad thing.  You just need to learn to make the switch from physical to spiritual.  This is what we ought to spend our lives doing any way!

As we all get older and begin to lose our physical senses – let’s make sure that we are working to grow, develop and strengthen our spiritual senses, so that we can hear, see and respond to the awesome stuff of God!

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Three Things You Can’t Do!

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“Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.  And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God!”  Romans 5:1-2

There are three things that you cannot do, no matter how hard you try!  You can pretend to do these things and many people do, but to what advantage?

You Cannot Save Yourself! Scripture tells us that we are “justified through faith!”  Our being justified (made right) comes through faith, but not just any ole faith will do.  We must have faith in someone or something that matters or it is all for nothing.  We are made right with God through our faith in Jesus Christ!  It does not matter how smart or slick you think you are.  You will never be smart or slick enough to save yourself.  Jesus came and died on the cross – to do for you and me – what we could not do for ourselves!

You Cannot Manufacture Peace! Because we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  I am not talking about a moment of no worries.  I am talking about an inner certainty that everything is going to be okay as we trust, yield and follow God.  The very best that we can do in our everyday living is to put a band aid on the situations and circumstances that are bringing us down.  When you are made right with God through faith in Jesus, then you know that whatever is going on in your life is being used for God’s glory and man’s blessing as we trust and surrender to God and His magnificent will!

You Cannot Waste Grace! Faith in Jesus allows us to stand and walk in grace!  I think a lot of people now a days are living with a “fake grace!”  We like to say that we have received this beautiful gift from God, but the truth is this: If you have the gift of grace – it will change your life and the way that you live it! I see a lot of people now a days wasting grace, but it’s not God’s grace.  It is a grace that man has made up to justify his doing whatever he wants, whenever he wants and that is not grace at all!  It’s real or it’s fake and the way to tell is by how you are living your life!

Where Do You Stand?

You can’t save yourself, but you can be saved!  Just put your trust in the only One that really matters and let Him take care of the justification.

You can have peace, but you have to get rid of that pretend stuff that you have made up to open up your life to the real stuff that flows out of a growing and meaningful relationship with Jesus!

You got grace just waiting for you to allow yourself to really experience freedom.  Not freedom to do whatever you want, but freedom to do the right things that guide your life into and through blessing!

Realize what you can’t do and get out of God’s way and let Him work!  As God works on, in and through you, make sure that you are living the life that is giving Him the glory and you can’t help but experience the blessing!