Tag Archives: Admirable

The Car Wash

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Moments with My Father

 

Good morning to you! As I gaze upon our Father’s Word today, it is on my heart to write about the importance of putting off our old self which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires and to be made new in the attitude of our minds – to put on the new self created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. This is a message we have all heard before, meaning our old self is the sinful nature that lives within us, for which Christ died on the cross. This old nature within us misleads us from God’s ways and cheats us from seeing life at His best. Our Father mentions “attitude” of our minds in this passage. The attitude of our old self is one of worry, complaining and grumbling. Upon believing, He has placed His Holy Spirit in us to help us live our new self, to be like Him that is not anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, presenting our requests to God. And then the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things. “Attitude” is something we can all struggle with and a bad attitude is certainly something to work on. I like to think about it this way: When our attitude is bad, we need to think “going to the car wash.” Say what? Yep, I said “car wash.” After all, we are God’s vehicles, so to speak, that carries His Spirit that carries the Good News along the road of life. Our vehicles have a tendency to collect dirt and be unclean (due to our sinful nature). As a result, the view through the front window (our sight) can become clouded over so that we do not see well the way of the Lord. This calls for the need to hose off with His living water (the Spirit in us), to apply the scrubbing bubbles called “Gratitude” as you follow the Word instructions (the Bible) so as to dissolve away the muck of our sinful attitude and then, use prayer wax to help guard (our mind and heart) and the cleanliness and shininess of Him in us (the new self) will be the result. We can then head out onto the road of life with peace of mind and His ride into the world through us will represent Him well. I’m thinking toting a good amount of change is a good thing to do. How about you? See ya on the road. I can do that well with a clean window (a Godly view)!
Eph 4:1,22-24; Php 2:14-16, 4:6-8; Mt 6:25; 1 Co 3:16; 2 Co 5:20-21, Ro 12:2

When the Enemy is in Camp by Sheila and Dad

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Good morning to ya’s. Are ya risen? Wednesday is upon us and in our study of Mark, the disciples still haven’t slept enough and it looks like there is excitement in the works as Judas, Jesus betrayer brings all those recruited by the chief priests, teachers of the law and elders to arrest Him in the garden or orchard at Mount Olives. All of this is happening in a place that had been such a special setting for Jesus – a place where He had such fond memories. It is interesting that now the whole mood of the place has changed with the enemy now in the camp. If you have ever had the enemy in your camp, you know it is not a good time to be had and it calls for some strategy and tactics to deal with it in a Godly way. Here are some thoughts I’m pondering based on this passage of Scripture 1) One of the first things I see Jesus do in this situation is that He tells His disciples at the end of our study yesterday to rise up – to take a stand. When we are facing the enemy, it is important to be found standing with the Lord with His viewpoint and His plan in mind! 2) As we see in this story, the enemy is a deceiver – his kiss of Jesus was a lie or front to bring about his plan to destroy Jesus. Yikes!! The application of this for us is when the enemy is in our camp, it is important to recognize what lies he is telling us. Jesus dealt with this issue by pointing it out and speaking truth to the enemy’s lies. 3) One of the disciples, (it is thought to be Peter – our “superman”) drew his sword to fight, striking a servant of the high priest and cutting off his ear. This speaks to me that it isn’t a good idea to go for the blood when the enemy is in our camp! Rather, Jesus sought to bring healing to the hurts or wounds in the situation as evidenced by His reaching up and healing the ear. It is admirable that Peter’s heart desired to defend his beloved, but a different tactic in doing so was more appropriate than the one he used in this story. 4) Like Jesus, it is important when the enemy is in camp to not be found leading an undivine rebellion. Jesus was not rebelling against His Father’s will and He modeled being quick to listen and slow to speak. He displayed the fruit of the Spirit – love. When the enemy is coming at me with swords and clubs to capture me, I want to remain calm and seek to talk through matters calmly as Jesus did. He also encouraged them not to be hostile. Jesus had the foreknowledge that good would come from the situation in the end. 5) Everyone fled from Jesus even the dude who had been so excited and quick to be with Jesus that in haste he grabbed a wrap and that’s it as he decided to follow after Jesus. But when he saw the enemy had seized upon Jesus, he couldn’t get away from Him fast enough. Whoohoo! He just threw away all he had and ran off buck naked – free of it all, leaving behind what was a good thing and not thinking about down the road regretting his haste. Oops! I imagine he ended up thinking how olive leaves might help or “Where is there a healthy fig tree when you need it? Oh man, I wish I had a needle and some thread!” That is a mindset that goes back to the Garden of Eden in terms of Designer clothing! This man’s actions speak to me that he was a “good times only” kind of friend – when the going got tough, he got going as fast and care free as possible. Dad’s Word says a friend loves at all times. In my heart, I so want to be that kind of a friend that sticks or keeps trying and doesn’t give up out of fear and discouragement. It is to this end that we need to encourage one another when we see the enemy in camp. I so hope your camp is peaceful where you are. Let’s keep standing with Him! God bless ya’s!
Mk 14:43-52; Mt 10:22; 2 Th 2:15; Ja 1:19, 5:7-8; 1 Jn 1:6, 2:4; Lk 22:48, 51; Jn 8:44; Pr 17:17;
Ge 3:7; Ro 8:28-29