January 2021
Escaping the Funk by Ron Saladin
This is the Day by Cynthia Saladin
February
Open My Eyes That I May See . . . by Ron Saladin
Tracking by Cynthia Saladin
March
Showering Your People and Outwitting the Foxes by Ron Saladin
Living With a Loose Rein by Cynthia Saladin
Don't Give Up - submitted by Demian Rollins
Bunny Philosophy
April
Lambkins by Ron Saladin
The Attraction of Rotting Carcasses by Cynthia Saladin
May
Do the Next Thing by Cynthia Saladin
Common Senseless by Dan White
June
To Clearly See by Cynthia Saladin
July
Find What's Best by Cynthia Saladin
August
Lessons From the Berry Patch by Cynthia Saladin
September
A Taste of Glory by Cynthia Saladin
October
Where Are You? by Cynthia Saladin
November
God's Gift of Cats and Dogs by Cynthia Saladin
Don't You Know Who You Are? by Cynthia Saladin
December
Walking By Faith, Not By Sight by Tricia Manning
Open My Eyes by Cynthia Saladin
January 2021
Escaping the Funk
by Ron Saladin
I enjoy life, generally speaking. I much prefer being a sentient being over existing as a rock. Rocks can last a long time and be quite useful, but they tend to show no emotion even when they accomplish something important, like edging your flower patch.
One reason I enjoy life is I like to accomplish things, to see a positive result for my efforts. So I was distressed recently when I considered my long list of stuff to do and I simply did not feel like I wanted to do any of it, or, even worse, anything.
I felt very conflicted. I wanted to get at least something done, but I just couldn’t get moving. It was a bit unusual for me and uncomfortable. I wondered what was wrong, and as I sat considering, one part of my brain said, “You’re in a funk.”
I’m at the age when my brain doesn’t always work as harmoniously as it once did. So another part of my brain said, “What’s a funk?” They decided to look it up.
Besides being a music genre and part of the name of a famous dictionary, the word funk has several meanings and exists a bit differently in British and American usage. The British usage can refer to a coward or avoiding a job or person or something out of fear. The American usage sees funk as being in a state of depression.
My brain agreed: I was definitely experiencing the American version. I was in a depressed funk. One part said to the other part, “Told you so.”
Knowing what I was experiencing was valuable but only if it helped to provide an escape route from the prison. In Zechariah 4:10 God asks, “For who hath despised the day of small things?” The people of God there were in a bit of a funk, if I may use my paraphrase. There was no way they could make the temple they were building to come close to the majesty of Solomon’s temple. They did not need to worry about that though; their job was to get it done.
I decided to just get something done. I picked an easy job that was overdue. I began to wade through the thick molasses-like aura still surrounding me and began to do something that needed to be done.
It was amazing.
Some two hours or so later, I had accomplished several things on my list, and I was hurrying against sundown to do more, wishing I had more time.
Maybe you’re in a funk. There’s sure lots of reasons one could point to. There’s this SARS-CoV-2 virus out there which has changed how much of the world lives. We look forward to the time things can get back to “normal.”
Maybe that will happen. Maybe it won’t.
Maybe this is the time when we will begin to experience waves of problems which just don’t fully go away. Sort of like a woman with birth pangs looking to be delivered. Here in the U.S. we are looking at our society, government, and media in shambles, a far cry from what we once were.
Some fear a civil war. There are lots of reasons to be in a funk if you look for them.
In the parable of the pounds, Jesus gave His servants an order to “Occupy till I come.” In other words, keep busy, do your business. Their occupying was to be productive for the Master, accomplishing something worthwhile regardless of the time in which they lived.
There’s lots of ways to obey that order. As long as you’re not in a funk.
I do not presume I am revealing any new information here. Most of us, if not all, have experienced what I have described. Nevertheless, we humans have a tendency to forget sometimes the solutions to the problems that plague us.
In a funk? Try doing something easy which does need to be done. Don’t discount small starts or lesser projects. Take appropriate action and watch the blimp of funkiness deflate. Just start. Who knows? Maybe God will notice and get involved with your efforts.
It does seem to me, at least at times, God enjoys starting small and building.
After all, isn’t that what He is doing with us?
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This is the Day by Cynthia Saladin
We humans have a hard time finding the right balance. Like a pendulum, we tend to swing back and forth, never quite finding the middle ground of moderation in all things. Take, for instance, the tension that exists between setting goals and looking to the future vs. being content in the moment and enjoying the trip.
One of the best parts of going to the Feast of Tabernacles when I was a kid was leaving a couple of weeks early and taking our time getting to the Feast. One year we drove through Glacier National Park and up into Canada. One year we visited Mesa Verde and the Grand Canyon on our way to Tucson. One of my favorite memories of the Feast in Colorado Springs in 1981 was finding a waterfall, unexpectedly, and stopping to explore.
But most of life isn’t like that. You don’t take the time to do something off agenda. When you’re young, you want to be 16 so you can get your driver’s license. Then you start planning where you’re going to go to college. All of school is set up with goals, milestones to meet. First we conquer this curriculum/textbook, then we go onto the next. We mold our offspring into setting goals and working hard to achieve them. Even decades removed from college, I’m still working on those goals. Most of the time, I have a to-do list that has more than seventeen things on it! For each day! I have a goal to accomplish and I’m determined to meet that goal.
And that’s not a bad thing. It’s important to lead a productive life. But The List can’t take over my life. When it does, because it’s easy to become addicted to the feelings of accomplishment, then you lose the spontaneity of enjoying the little things that crop up unexpectedly. You become so focused on the future (your life, your children’s lives, the country, etc) that you become almost immobilized by worry. You plow full steam ahead into taking anxious thought about tomorrow. And in the process, you miss the joy from finding a frost flower early in the morning, or seeing a deer poking her head out at the edge of the trees, or just being quiet in front of the fireplace with a cup of hot chocolate. You can’t become so driven that it takes over your life and you neglect to be still and know that He is God.
There’s a quietness and peace which comes from withdrawing from the hubbub and chaos around you, taking time to seek God and be in His presence daily. The God who created fragrant roses expects us to smell them as we pass by. He expects us to enjoy the flavors of the food He has provided. He must delight in the antics of our pets as much as we do - He’s the One who created them to be such fun creatures! What a huge insult not to enjoy and thank God for the abundance of all things!!
It occurred to me that our lives have to be like my teaching/plan book. Each summer I sit down and prayerfully consider the courses I’m going to be teaching my kids. But I would never dream of getting out my plan book and writing down in INK what we’re going to do each day of each week for the whole school year. I do know some teachers and homeschool parents who tried doing that. But they only made that mistake once! There are too many things (called life) that interferes with what we think we’re going to be able to accomplish. Now you can either be flexible and embrace unexpected, or you can get really stressed because things aren’t going the way you planned. Seems almost ludicrous when you put it in those terms, doesn’t it? And yet, isn’t that what we tend to do our entire lives. We have a plan and when things don’t go according to plan, we get all bent out of shape.
I can’t help but come back to Psalm 118:24: This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Doesn’t it make you think: regardless of what tasks you have before you, regardless of what unplanned detours you may be taking, God is still in control. He’s sovereign. There’s nothing that is happening to you that is a surprise to Him. So be prudent. Make plans. But be flexible in the unexpected. Enjoy the life God has given us. And strive for moderation in all things, knowing that we’re to be about the Father’s business, to His glory and honor.
February
Open My Eyes That I May See . . .
by Ron Saladin
I have an old truck, a 1993 S10. I decided to remove the spare tire and wheel from the underside of the vehicle. It had a factory-installed lock on it requiring a key. To the best of my knowledge the tire had never been removed since its original installation, and after some 27 years of being exposed to road slosh, it was in rather sad shape.
When I bought the truck from a friend, two keys were in the glovebox for the spare tire lock. That was some ten years ago. I looked, but, naturally, I found no keys. Keys have a way of sprouting little key feet and sneaking off to hiding places. At least in my house.
So I began to look elsewhere. We have a long key chain with dozens of mystery keys on it, as well as other chains with probable labels on them. I gathered them up and made my way back to the underside of the truck. I was so agitated by now I didn’t want to wait for the next day. I lay under the truck in the dark with a flashlight and a piece of cardboard to provide some ease from the damp ground and the cold. It began to rain.
I patiently tried all the keys that even looked remotely like they might fit, which was practically all of them. Some fit in the lock, but nothing would turn far enough to open the lock. After
retrying many of the keys, I decided on another approach, but I would wait for daylight.
Taking the drill, hammer, and pry bars, I returned to the underside of the truck. I proceeded to decimate the lock. It resisted me, as locks often resist the efforts of amateur locksmiths. In spite of a cramped working space, difficult angles, and falling rust, the lock finally gave up. The tire and rim was off! I enjoyed the victory even as I kicked myself for having lost the keys.
A few days later, I needed to put some paperwork in the truck. I opened the glovebox and went through some of the items there. Yep, you guessed it. In a small container I thought only contained change, I found two keys. Clearly labeled: spare tire.
I sat in the passenger seat stunned, chagrinned. All the hours of searching and aggravated work was unnecessary. The key was right there all along, a few feet away from my problem. After some self-administered rear-end kicking, I analyzed how my oversight happened.
First, I was in a hurry. I did not take the time to search as I should have. Second, I envisioned the keys to be openly visible or in a different container. I was expecting to see something different than what was really there.
Sometimes we read the Bible in a hurry. True believers are always looking to God’s Word, the Bible, for truth. Truth, however, sometimes does not look like we expect it to. Our preconceived ideas can, hopefully not often, result in us not seeing what is really there.
Curiously, I found what I had been looking for after my preconceived ideas were no longer a factor. In fact, I wasn’t even looking.
Isaiah 65:1-2: I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought me not: I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name. I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts.
I am not suggesting we are all rebellious people provoking God to anger. Perhaps though, sometimes our own thoughts get in the way of our walk with God and understanding His Ways and His communications to us in His Word. His words are like keys unlocking hidden truths on how to live life. Sometimes our preconceived ideas of what we are reading prevent us from seeing what is really there.
The older I get and the longer I walk in this Way, the more I am in indescribable awe of the infinite intellect, power, and majesty of our God. After decades of reading the Bible, I still see new depths of meaning and surprising ways it all fits together.
More so now than ever before, it seems.
In a not-too-distant, new aeon, I envision a time when I will sit chagrinned again, reflecting on just how many keys I had overlooked. I will rue over just how often I was blind to what was right before me.
O Lord, open my eyes that I may see.
Please.
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Tracking
by Cynthia Saladin
Walking the dogs in the mornings has become a little more interesting. Velvet is almost deaf, and, with her cataracts, almost blind. She still likes going for a walk, but is understandably reluctant to venture too far from the house unless she’s sure I’m there. I watch her relying more and more on her sense of smell. If Ebony has already gone down the path, Velvet is much more willing to follow.
This morning was fun. There was a light dusting of snow on the ground, which just seemed to invigorate the labs. Ebony even wandered off into the trees for a little side exploration. Velvet actually tried to do a little running. That didn’t last long. But both of them were very aware of where I was at all times.
So I was thinking about using our senses, all of our senses, as we follow Jesus. We look for Him - in scripture, in “coincidences” that come our way, in open or closed doors. We listen for the Holy Spirit’s voice - nudging us towards one path or another, aiding us in discerning the right choice to make. Then I thought about that verse that talks about the aroma of Christ. Have I been in the presence of Christ so that I carry His aroma with me?
Then in the midst of thinking about touch, I saw some very strange tracks on the road. They were odd. I looked back over my shoulder because the dusting of snow was so light that I wasn’t leaving any tracks. So I was baffled as to what Pepper was tracking, nose to the ground.
Moments later I smiled as realization dawned. I suddenly knew what was making those very strange tracks. Pepper wasn’t tracking anything; it was Pepper’s tongue licking the snow. His feet weren’t leaving any prints, but he certainly was leaving a trail of tongue marks as he tasted his way down the road. I couldn’t help but think of Psalm 34:8, “Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!”
Our God is good! And as we follow Him down this road called life, He reaffirms that through all of our senses!!!
March 2021
Showering Your People and Outwitting the Foxes by Ron Saladin
My favorite James Taylor song is “Just shower the people you love with love; show them the way that you feel.” At least that’s part of the refrain. I was sitting at my computer when I thought of a childhood friend I had not seen or heard from in decades. I keyed his name into the search engine.
To my surprise, a newspaper article popped up concerning a project he was involved in.
Before I could adequately process that, I saw the next article.
He had unexpectedly died shortly after the newspaper article came out.
I was shocked, a bit paralyzed by information overload. We had been best friends through our teenage years. Maybe it was somebody else with the same name?
I quickly accessed the article and a picture. Older looking, of course, but unmistakably my friend from youth. From time to time over the years, I had wondered what happened to him and thought about trying to get together to rehash growing up adventures. We had a lot of them.
But I didn’t and he didn’t and now that won’t happen. Not in this age at least.
Then I began to reflect on why we lost contact with each other in the first place, after all we had shared. Those growing up years are pretty special. There was the obvious reason. He went into his career, and I was drafted, a two-year mandatory separation.
After my discharge, we did get together at times, but we were on different paths, both philosophically and spiritually. Nevertheless, friendships can survive such differences if the foundation has been solidly laid. Ours wasn’t. It had many little cracks along the way.
Even though he was a friend, he found humor in surprising me with things unpleasant, humiliating, and even painful at times. Perhaps that wasn’t so unusual with teenage boys growing up back then. Those were the days of Leave It To Beaver and Eddie Haskell. Sometimes you weren’t sure which camp Eddie was in: enemy or friend.
At some point, humiliating, painful, and unpleasant behaviors, even from friends, accumulate to the point relationships become severely damaged. When life circumstances change, the relationships often are not maintained. The desire to do so just doesn’t match the effort required.
Song of Songs comes to mind, 2:15: “Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom.”
These “foxes” would hide in vineyards and eat the ripe grapes. The time to deal with them was before the grapes were ripe, even when the vines were just blooming.
Relationships are like vineyards, requiring time and effort, but potentially producing wonderful fruit if carefully overseen. Disrespectful words, hurtful actions and being unpleasant to those we care about are like animals intent on destroying the good harvest we desire in our relationships.
The closer we draw to each other, the more vulnerable we are to being hurt by careless words and actions. Our defenses have been lowered in trust. It is a curious attribute of fallen human nature: we are often the most hurtful in our words and actions to the people we profess to care the most about.
Those we call friends comprise very special relationships. Friendships are entered into voluntarily with the consent and desire of both parties. We want our spouses, children, and closest associates to be at that level.
But that’s not always the case.
Hurtful words and disrespectful behaviors can be forgiven. We all fall short of perfection and need to forgive and to be forgiven. Most of us are probably guilty of some fox-like behavior in our past. Nevertheless, such actions over enough time can remove a relationship from friend to a lower level. Curiously, it is possible to love someone but no longer consider them a friend. Sadly, some marriages and families exist at this lower level. Given enough foxes and time, an entire vineyard can be destroyed.
Consider the vineyard God has given you. Eradicate the foxes and fence them out forever. Shower the people you love with love instead of hurtful, disrespectful words and behaviors.
You just might end up with a friend ’til death do you part
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Living With a Loose Rein by Cynthia Saladin
It doesn’t take very long working cattle to appreciate a good cow horse. And the more you work together, the more solid you become as a team. Your horse knows just which cow you want before you are even aware that you gave any signal. He’ll cut that cow out of the bunch probably without any help from you. So when I came across this quote from John Wesley the other day, I was struck by how evocative an impression it made.
We’ve all seen the Westerns where the cowboys are holding their horses on a tight rein, so much that their necks are arched. The horses look like they’re raring to go. It’s good theatrics, I suppose, but not very realistic.
On the other hand, not having any tension in the reins doesn’t work well either. One day, Brian (aka Shaggy) invited his girlfriend out to the ranch where I was working for the summer. He decided to take her horseback riding. I don’t think she’d ever been before. Shaggy put her up on Whitey, his favorite horse, and told her to grab the reins. She did . . . at the very ends, so that the reins looped down almost to the ground. And then they took off, riding much too quickly for someone who’d never ridden before. When Shaggy saw where she was holding the reins, he told her to gather them up. She started pulling them in, reaching out as far as she could and pulling them back as rapidly as she could because the fence was coming up towards her pretty quickly. Did I tell you that this was a cattle ranch? Did I mention that Shaggy used Whitey to chase cows, and that he’d spent a lot of time training this horse? Like any good cow horse, as soon as Whitey felt the tension on the reins, he stopped, instantly. The girl . . . well, physics took over. Her momentum carried her over Whitey’s head and spilled her out on the sand (thankfully) where she rolled a couple of somersaults before stopping. I don’t know whether it was the humiliation of being dumped off the horse or the fact that Shaggy was laughing so hard, but she never visited again.
So when John Wesley said that trusting God is like living with a loose rein, he didn’t mean riding horseback like Shaggy’s girl. Nor did he mean like the Lone Ranger rides Silver on the silver screen. I suspect that he meant that there’s a trust between a horse and his rider that develops over time, communication, shared experiences, shared accomplishments, heartaches, and victories.
When I was eleven, I spent a lot of that summer helping Uncle Mike chase cows. One particular day we were bringing in thirteen dries (cows that didn’t have a calf and needed to be sold at the sale barn). Those cows wanted to go anywhere but the house. Buster, my horse, was a wise, sure-footed cow horse; I was just along for the ride. At one point, the cows doubled back and Buster spun right after them. I literally reached out and grabbed the saddle horn to pull myself back into the saddle. Buster immediately stopped the pursuit so that I could regain my seat. Like I said, Buster knew what needed to be done; I was more of a liability than a help.
It’s ironic, isn’t it. We like to think when we’re up on horseback that we’re in control. We’re calling the shots. That 1800-pound horse is actually the one in control. He’s the one doing the work. He’s the one getting me from Point A to Point B. He’s the one who’s letting me go along for the ride. The amazing thing is that, when I have developed a relationship, the horse wants to please me, so he’s willing to go where I point him and chase cows when I need to move them from one place to another. But Buster also made it quite plain that he was really the one in control the day he stepped on my boot. Ever try to push a horse off the foot that he’s standing on?!
I liked John Wesley’s quote. Living with a loose rein means that there’s trust between you and God. But it’s more than that. It’s relying on Him rather than ourselves, living “with a calmer, more relaxed attitude” because you know that He’s really the One in control. He’s the One moving you from Point A to Point B. He’s the One getting the work done and providing the power. But because we have a relationship, God is also very attentive to our cry. He listens to our prayers. He takes care of us when we almost fall out of the saddle. It is not the kind of relationship where we hold Him at arm’s length - with a distant communication that is really no communication at all. When we play at being a Christian, it’s not God’s fault when we find ourselves rolling head over heels from some poor life decision. At the other end of the spectrum, God is also not anything like a genie in a bottle; He is not under our control like the stereotypical silver screen horses; He doesn’t exist to do our bidding.
God is our Protector. He enables us to work and accomplish great things. He enjoys our pleasure. He wants to hear our voice and He listens to us. But He also expects us to listen to Him. There’s mutual trust and respect and love, and He is our Friend, in the very best sense of the word. And thankfully, if we learn to live with a loose rein, He lets us go along for the ride.
Quote from: Amazing Grace, Kenneth Osbeck, “I Am His and He is Mine,” 1990, pg. 50.)
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"You only live once, but if you do it right,
once is enough.” - Mae West
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I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward - to Jesus. I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back.” Philippians 3:13-14 Msg
In 1952, Florence Chadwick attempted to swim the chilly ocean waters between Catalina Island and the California shore. She swam through foggy weather and choppy seas for fifteen hours Her muscles began to cramp, and her resolve weakened. She begged to be taken out of the water, so aides lifted her into a boat. They paddled a few more minutes., the mist broke, and Florence discovered that the shore was less than a half mile away. “All I could see was the fog,” she later explained. “I think if I could have seen the shore, I would have made it.”
Take a long look at the shore that awaits you. Don’t be fooled by the fog. The finish may be only strokes away. God may be, at this moment, lifting his hand to conduct a victory song. Angels may be assembling, saints gathering, demons trembling. Stay at it! Stay in the water. Stay in the race. Stay in the fight Forgive, one more time. Be generous, one more time. Encourage one more friend, swim one more stroke.
~devotion submitted by Demian Rollins,
original source unknown
Bunny Philosophy
There's a box with a hole at each end, and there's a rabbit in the box. The rabbit sticks his head out of the hole in one end, and a minute later he sticks it out the other end. Half a minute later, his head appears at the opposite end, a fourth of a minute later it appears at the end opposite to that one, an eighth of a minute later, etc., etc. How long will it take before the rabbit sticks its head out of both ends of the box at the same time.
In theory, two minutes. In practice, no answer is possible unless you split hares.
April
All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.
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Lambkins
by Ron Saladin
Lambs are not popular as icons for sport teams. There’s a good reason for that, of course: it is difficult to get excited about the winning probabilities of a team named the Frisky Lambs. Paired against bears, tigers, or panthers, lambs would always seem to be at a disadvantage. Even ducks would look mighty by comparison.
Nevertheless, in God’s creation lambs occupy a position of great importance. They had His attention before anything of this world even existed.
Revelation 13:8 - “And all that dwell on earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”
The Greek word for “lamb” there is arnion, meaning “a lambkin.”
Many years before, the Apostle John quoted John the Baptist referring to Jesus as the Lamb of God. The Greek there is amnos, the Lamb of sacrifice, provided by God. Through the amnos of God, we are spared from destruction as the Israelites were spared through the Passover lamb of the Exodus. A synonym to amnos is aren from which comes the diminutive arnion, a lambkin.
Throughout Revelation, it is the little lamb that is so often referred to, arnion. Perhaps this is simply a reflection of a language changing over the years. Nevertheless, Jesus used arnion when He told Peter to “Feed my lambs.”
There is something so endearing about a small lamb, so painful to think of it being killed. Yet the plan of God for the salvation of mankind would involve the painful death of a special lamb of sacrifice.
Exactly when this plan came about, we don’t know, just that it was there at the beginning of this creation. Did the Father originate the plan and reveal it to the Son? Or was it a simultaneous realization? We don’t know such things. But the Mighty God the Son would become weak, or become perceived as weak, a vulnerable creature in a world of predators.
By choice.
Even in the Garden of Gethsemane, apprehended by the wolves of this world, the Lamb could have called for thousands of angelic backups. One would have been more than enough.
But He didn’t make that request, and He went on to suffer at the hands of vicious men and die as a sacrificial creature.
We as Christians are called to imitate His submission, to take His icon of a lambkin upon ourselves. At times it means appearing near defenseless in a world filled with aggressive carnivores. It means being gentle in a world where violence is often seen as the better option. It means being discounted and seen as having little or no value by the secular worldview at large. It means being seen as a loser by those who know how to effectively manipulate others to their own advantage.
Let’s pick a number. Say one million. I believe some reading this will exist as transformed children of God a million years from now. They will be blessed to interact with God face to face, to see Him as He is.
On the other side of this seeing is God looking at us.
In the book of Revelation, the Lamb is presented as the conquering warrior, the Lion of Judah, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. The church, shaped into the image of the Lion of Judah, will be glorious beings to behold, sharing in the inheritance of Christ, shining like the stars, everliving beings of light and power.
Nevertheless, when God looks at His children even then, I suspect He will see past the lion personages to the foundation of the lambs which came first so long ago. It is needful for the lessons learned as
lambkins to shape the behaviors of the forever lions.
Take heart, team of lambs, we are still in spring training. The real season has not begun yet. Opening day doesn’t start until the Captain shows up.
Prominent prognosticators in the past such as Isaiah, Daniel, Paul, Peter, and even our Captain predict the lambs will be ultimately undefeatable. So far many of their other predictions have come true with uncanny accuracy.
Learning to be lamblike now is a forever trait blended in with the eternal strength and dominance of being a lion. Many little lambs are being shaped into the image of Jesus Christ, Lamb of God, Lion of Judah.
Go lambkins.
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“Religion says, ‘I obey;
therefore I am accepted.’
Christianity says, ‘I’m accepted, therefore I obey.’”
—Timothy Keller
The Attraction of Rotting Carcasses
by Cynthia Saladin
When Jennifer walked Pepper and Virginia up the easement a week or so ago, she was dismayed to see a decaying carcass. It would have been disgusting even if she’d been alone, but having a dog along made it so much worse. And you know why! A dog is naturally attracted to carrion. if they don’t roll in that “luscious” (to them) aroma, they’re likely to want to partake of the banquet. It’s their nature! You can’t really do anything about it. If you’re with the dog, you can scold, but you know at the first opportunity, he’ll likely be back to the smorgasbord to indulge.
Here we are, rapidly approaching the spring holy days. We’re supposed to examine ourselves (1 Corinthians 11:28) to recognize who we are in Christ and how very much we continue to need Jesus, our Redeemer and Savior. As part of our examination process, we should consider the depth of our devotion to Jesus Christ. How much do we trust Him? How much do we believe in Him? We’re not just interested in the verbal profession of belief - because words, like beauty, can be only skin deep. So we look at our actions. Our actions follow our belief; that is, what we habitually do is based on what we truly believe. Just as the dogs are naturally attracted to carrion, we will be attracted to that which is most desirable to us. Just as the dogs will take advantage of every opportunity to return to the dead carcass, we demonstrate what is nearest and dearest to our heart by where we spend our time and money. Oh, we are more devious than the dogs. (The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked! Jeremiah 17:9) When someone is watching, we may act like a Christian. But our habitual choices demonstrate our Christianity, our nature, the depth of our relationship with our Messiah. Just like the dogs, we can’t help it. It’s our nature.
So watch yourself. Consider your choices. Evaluate you reactions to what’s happening in your life, in your relationships with others, your response to what God is allowing to occur. When you’re alone, where do your thoughts default? When you have no one watching, is your standard as high as when you’re trying to impress someone? Do you agonize over giving an offering to God and think nothing of buying some expensive thing you don’t really need? What brings you the greatest peace and contentment? Is it God-centered?
If you’re like me, these questions make you cry out with intensity, “Oh wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! . . .” (Romans 7:24-25) And thus I find myself on the road to an honest examination of myself so that I may discern the Lord’s body and how very much I need my Savior. It’s a sobering and humbling realization every year just how much we are attracted by the carrion in our lives.
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“One hundred religious persons knit into
a unity by careful organization do not constitute a church any more than eleven dead men make a football team.”—AW Tozer
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You know children are growing up when they start asking questions that have answers.
May
Do the Next Thing by Cynthia Saladin
Mark Twain said, “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” There’s a lot of truth in that! Sometimes the hardest part of any project is just getting started, and this is a common problem regardless of your tasks. A tilled, but unplanted, garden can seem overwhelming. Knowing that the whole house needs to be cleaned before Passover is daunting! Re-shingling a roof, re-fencing a property, preparing a seminar presentation . . . the list grows and the sheer weight of all that there is to do becomes intense.
Many years ago, I heard an analogy based on “Fiddler on the Roof.” After the Soviets had come to their village, ransacking and making a mess, Tevye looked around at the devastation and the chickens running wild and just picked up a chicken. It’s the idea that when you’re faced with an overwhelming task, you just do the next thing. You pick up a chicken. I think of that a lot when I have a list of seventeen things to do. I just do the next thing. I pick up a chicken.
Some people like to survey their list and do the worst task first. It’s like swallowing a frog. That’s probably the worst thing that can happen to you all day long. Everything else will be more pleasant and easier to swallow, so to speak. I don’t always have that luxury. There are days I’m putting out fires.
Even when the list in front of me is so overwhelming that I just want to go back to bed and pretend I’ve nothing to do, I know that I just have to get started doing the next thing.
Think of it this way: how can God bless your efforts if you haven’t put forth any?
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Common Senseless
by Dan White
Spiritual dementia –
It affects not only moral beliefs but also plain common sense.
Romans 1 mentions spiritual dementia.
Rom 1 World English Bible 28) Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting; 29) being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, malice; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil habits, secret slanderers, 30) backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31) without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, unforgiving, unmerciful;
This passage is one of the most hated by the anti-Christ movement. God says that when people reject Him, He gives them a reprobate mind, a lack of understanding about life. They are people who are morally repugnant, yet consider themselves upstanding moralists, who freely tell others how to live their lives.
Most translations say “reprobate mind” as in that quote, copying the King James.
The Lexham Bible says: “And just as they did not see fit to recognize God, God gave them over to a debased mind, …”
The Aramaic Peshitta, in an English translation of that Aramaic translation from the Greek says: “And as they did not consent in themselves to know God, God has given them over to a weak mind, ...”
A reprobate mind is that which God rejects. A debased mind has lost its base, that base being knowledge of the Creator.
And a weak mind?
What is a weak mind?
This is.
Portland, Oregon, among several communist leaning American cities, had many days of riots last year. In response to those riots, Portland cut their police forces back.
Does that sound like good common sense? To have riots and blame them on the police protecting the city from the rioters?
The Portland City Council has passed the 2020-21 budget 3-1, after failing to pass it last week. Included in the budget are plans to cut at least $15 million from the police bureau, eliminating 84 positions...
Activists were demanding a $50 million cut to the police bureau...
“Please take a moment to celebrate this victory, and let it fuel your fire, because we're not done," one of the city council members proclaimed. https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/protests/defunding-portland-police-city-council-budget-15-million-cuts/283-239c5e3a-cfed-4dce-8775-d2c52a9df9aa
So instead of the police getting a $3 million increase as planned, they got a $15 million cut, plus being widely hated by the people they were trying to protect from the criminals.
It wasn’t just the city officials who thought like that.
“When it came time for the public testimony on the city budget last week, an astonishing 742 people signed up to be heard. The testimony went on for hours, with nearly everyone called {sic} for defunding the police.”
So as the riots and anarchy continued, Portland cut back its police. Then what happened?
The riots did not stop, as anticipated by the liberals. When the hated police backed off, the riots continued. Even right up to the present time, with pro-rioter Democrats in power, Portland is still having riots. The left wing Democrats even rioted on Biden’s inauguration day.
Plus-
Washington Examiner recent headline –
“Portland cut police funding and got a 2,000% surge in murders.”
Nor is there any plausible way to blame the availability of guns in Oregon or in neighboring states. Guns are exactly as available today as they were before this 2,000% surge in murders. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/portland-cut-police-funding-and-got-a-2-000-surge-in-murders
The Democrats are perplexed over this. They believe in the basic goodness of humanity, and if they just remove the nasty police, who don’t believe in the basic goodness of humanity, then crime will basically disappear.
But what disappeared was a number of people, specifically those who were murdered by emboldened criminals.
This liberal thinking defies common sense. They are about as immoral as any people in history, truly spiritually demented. Yet, they also have lost their common sense.
If you take away the police, then the criminals will criminalize. That’s just common sense. And that’s what happened in Portland and several other left wing lunatic cities. Crimes, including murders, surged.
I believe there is a common sense saying, from centuries past, that applies here –
While the cat’s away, the mice will play.
Also rats.
People who have lost the Creator as their spiritual base are afflicted with spiritual dementia. They think that evil is good and good is evil. Apparently, this dementia also affects not just thinking about “spiritual” things, but just plain common sense. What person in his right mind would think that police cause crime and that reducing police will reduce crime?
When people lose God, they get a debased mind. They lose true moral values and it seems they also lose their common sense. Losing the knowledge of God has an enormous effect on a person.
The liberals are now being extremely liberal with the nation’s money. I read that 40% of America’s dollars were printed, or created, in the last year. On top of that, the Biden bunch has just rammed through a 2 trillion dollar “covid relief” package, with almost none of it going for that purpose. Now they’re talking about another 3 trillion dollar spending package. All this is on top of a national debt that already seemed unsustainable, and with an economy crippled by previous economic excesses and then covid.
Again we ask the question – What person in his right mind thinks the nation can continue like this? This defies all common sense, as if officials can continuously print money and never be held accountable.
Another example –
Democrats are now trying to end the Hyde Amendment, in effect almost from the time of the Roe vs. Wade decision that prohibits the Federal government from paying for abortions. A greatly disproportionate number of abortions have killed black babies, yet Democrats say the Hyde Amendment, which has saved untold numbers of black babies, is racist against blacks.
Does that make sense? A law that saves mostly black babies is racist against blacks?
Our liberal leaders are common senseless. They ain’t got no common sense.
Isn’t this amazing? How can smart people be so daft?
Answer?
They left God and He gave them a reprobate mind, a debased mind, a weak mind.
Many of the today’s liberals grew up in homes that taught them values that were God and Bible based, to whatever degree. When they grew up, they left that and were liberated to modern anti-Christ values. Some few turn back to reality, when they see the fruits of their new faith. But most have not, probably will not, and persist in the blindness that we see all around us today.
How we apply this lesson of spiritual dementia to ourselves?
Simple.
Get as much God as you can.
This will grow your spiritual understanding, and even help your common sense.
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Six Life Guidelines:
When you are alone, mind your thoughts.
When you are with friends, mind your tongue.
When you are angry, mind your tempter.
When you are with a group, mind your behavior.
When you are in trouble, mind your emotions.
When God starts blessing you, mind your ego.
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Parting Thought:
Your life is your story. Write well. Edit often.
June
To Clearly See by Cynthia Saladin
A few years ago, one of the kids had gotten a helium balloon. It floated around the living room for days. Towards the end of its life, it hovered close to the floor near the wood-burning stove. Now, Ron likes to sit in the early mornings, usually in the dark, drinking coffee, meditating, turning things over in his mind. Suddenly that balloon started rising and Ron’s hair rose along with it. Ron’s friend Terry said he would have shot it six times and then asked questions. We laugh about it, but the reality is that we see through a glass darkly.
Sometimes we don’t accurately identify what we’re seeing. One morning this week Ron walked into the dark living room with a cup of coffee. He noticed our black cat sleeping in the dark blue rocking chair next to him. A few moments later, he watched the chair start rocking back and forth slowly as the cat resettled herself. He thought how differently he would have reacted to seeing the chair moving had he not noticed the cat when he first sat down.
Other times, an intent to deceive with photoshopping or sleight of hand makes the seeing unbelievable. Ron and I enjoyed Reza, Branson Illusionist, in March. I still shake my head as I try to figure out how he made motorcycles disappear and a helicopter appear on stage - blades whirling!
And then there’s the discernment of the heart: we can see accurately what’s happening, but we misinterpret it. We assume motives erroneously. We jump to conclusions. We are led astray by human wisdom.
We are bombarded with a plethora of visual images every day - to the point of overload. We are fed a lot of information that, frankly, we just don’t believe is true. When you combine these two, it sets up a mindset of cautious skepticism. Or perhaps I just live surrounded by people who live by the Missouri nickname: I’m from Missouri; you’re going to have to show me.
It’s healthy to verify the accuracy of what you’re seeing. But in the world where the prince of the power of the air would like nothing more than to see the disintegration of our relationship with our Savior and God, we’d better be thorough in our verification process; that is, we’d better make sure we’re not using human wisdom, but Godly discernment. We’d better make sure that our relationship with God is intimate and secure so that we have the eyes to see what is really true. We have to quit reacting based solely on our emotions or the mental baggage that we drag around with us that distorts our perception of what’s really true.
Remember when the Syrian army surrounded Dothan to capture Elisha? (2 Kings 6:8-23) The king of Syria wanted to be shown who was telling their plans to Israel. One of his servants said that it was not a traitor in their midst, but Elisha. So the king decided to capture Elisha and surrounded the city. The young servant with Elisha was scared! Elisha prayed that God would open his eyes. He saw the horses and chariots of the army of God! Then Elisha asked God to blind the Syrian army. Elisha led the blinded army to Samaria, where the king wanted to know if he should kill this army which had been raiding and attacking Israel. Elisha told him NO! He asked God to restore their sight and he told the king to prepare a banquet for the Syrian army before sending them home.
All of this is so interesting! The king of Syria wanted to be shown the traitor. The young servant had his eyes opened to see God’s army. The Syrian army was blinded and then had their sight restored. And the king of Israel had the eyes of his heart opened to see a more Godly way of approaching this problem.
As we count down to Pentecost, I pray that part of your harvest is a clearer vision of God’s hand in your life, an accurate perception of where He wants you to go and what He wants you to be, and a Godly discernment of events around you. May God open your eyes to clearly see.
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Parting Thought:
"Intelligence is like four-wheel drive. It only allows you to get stuck in more remote places."
- Garrison Keillor
July
Find What’s Best
by Cynthia Saladin
My favorite line in Johnny Diaz’s “Breathe” is “Lay down what’s good and find what’s best.” Think about that for a moment: We have all these good things around us. Life is good. My occupation is good. My hobbies and daily activities are good. My relationship with God is good. My relationship with my family is good. Et cetera. But . . . are they best?
The Israelites coming out of Egypt refused to go into the Promised Land. They gave up God’s best for them in refusing to obey Him. Life was still good. God went with them. God provided manna for them daily. God led them. God was there. But it was not God’s best.
Elisha’s final prophecy was to Joash, King of israel (2 Kings 13). He told Joash to take a bow and arrow and shoot it out the window. It was the LORD’s arrow of victory over Syria. Then Elisha told Joash to take the arrows and strike the ground with them. Joash took the arrows and struck the ground three times. There’s no indication that Joash knew why he was striking the ground, but Elisha was angry nevertheless. He told Joash that if he’d struck the ground five or six times, he would have completely made an end of
Syria, but now he would only have three victories over them. Joash settled for less than God’s best.
Consider the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30). The servant who had been given five talents worked diligently to gain five more. The servant who had been given two talents, gained two more. Both were commended and given a reward. The servant who was given one talent made excuses and didn’t work for the master. The master did not respond favorably. He didn’t accept the excuses. In fact, that servant was cast into outer darkness where there was weeping and gnashing to teeth. Definitely not God’s best.
Then there’s the story of Elisha and the widow’s oil (2 Kings 4:1-7). The widow was in desperate straits. The creditor was coming to take her two children as slaves to pay off her debts. Elisha told her to go borrow “not a few” vessels. When she had taken the vessels into her house, she began pouring oil. As one vessel filled, her sons brought her another. Finally, she asked for another and they told her there were no more. Then the oil stopped. She had enough to pay her debts and enough left over to support herself and her children. What if she had only borrowed two jars? What if she had settled for just a few jars? She diligently borrowed “not a few” and the oil flowed until they were all filled. The widow got to experience God’s best.
There are so many examples in the Bible, so many principles for us to apply to our own lives! Do we settle for what’s good, instead of what’s best, because we don’t trust God enough to obey Him? Do we persevere in our obedience? Or do we obey for a while and then shrug and declare it good enough for government work? Do we make excuses for our disobedience and our unbelief? Do we acknowledge Him in all our ways, allowing Him to direct our paths? Do we see something good and settle for less than God’s best?
Do you remember the story of the rich fool (Luke 12:16-21)? This rich man had rich soil and abundant harvests. He wondered what he should do. Where was he going to store all of the harvest? He decided to tear down his old barn, build a bigger barn, store the harvest and sit back and take it easy. There’s nothing wrong with working hard and making plans to take it easy. Jesus’ condemnation centered on the fact that the rich fool was not rich toward God first!!
It occurred to me that although I would not be considered rich in material goods, I have a wealth that is enormous, howbeit not unlimited: time. What am I going to do with my time? What is most profitable for the kingdom? Here’s where the tricky part comes in! There are lots of good activities out there. I have one year left of homeschooling. Then what? What will I do with my time? I know I could very easily fill each day. There are so many things to do. What I don’t want to do is to settle for good. I don’t want to get busy, busy, busy. I want to take some time to sit at Jesus’ feet and figure out what God’s best is for me at this season in my life. What will bring Him glory and honor?
There’s a temptation to spend lots of time in Bible study and prayer. And that’s good too. But Jesus told His disciples to occupy until He comes. The fields are ripe unto harvest. The gospel needs to be spread. I’m not going to be part of that effort if I’m sitting at home, taking my ease, reading my Bible all day long. I need to be working for the kingdom! The days are short! But the cool thing is that God doesn’t want us just to survive; He wants us to thrive. He wants the very best for us. And it’s up to each of us to find not a few vessels for God to fill.
Trust Him, obey Him, honor Him, and find what’s best!
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Parting Thoughts:
"The art of language requires skills in not speaking quite as much as skills in speaking."
- Eugene Peterson
The only problem with buying a book on amnesia is that you are likely to forget where you put it!
August
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Lessons From the Berry Patch by Cynthia Saladin
It was a delightful morning in the blackberry patch today. Yesterday’s rain washed some of the heat and humidity out of the air. The patch was still in the shade that early in the morning. And several interesting thoughts occurred to me.
From a distance, the blackberry patch doesn’t look like there’s much fruit left this summer. But after thirty minutes of picking, I had half a gallon. That’s pretty good for going into the third week of the blackberry harvest! And isn’t it interesting how that works in our lives as well? As people get older, sometimes they start to feel like they don’t have much left to offer - to other people or to God. But that’s just not the case. There’s still much valuable fruit for the kingdom that they can produce!
I like picking blackberries because the really ripe ones have to go into my mouth. If I put them in the bucket and brought them into the house to wash, they’d just fall apart. They’re that ripe. So into my mouth they go. So sweet. So incredibly delicious! But they are so ripe that sometimes they disintegrate and I end up dropping them instead. It makes me think of that saying: There’s many a slip between cup and lip. You have something so very precious in your hand and it never makes it into your mouth. Sometimes it’s through carelessness, not paying close enough attention, or because you don’t care enough to be intentional about it. I hope we don’t treat our relationship with God that way! If we truly recognized the value of the relationship we would make it a priority so that it didn’t slip through our fingers. And oh how very sweet and precious that relationship with God is!!
Part of picking blackberries is wading into the patch. Thankfully there aren’t too many chiggers this summer, although I am sporting a few bites. But the other blessing in our patch is that a church friend, Virgel Tow, bought those blackberry bushes for us many years ago when he saw them on sale. He thought we needed thornless blackberries. Oh how many times over the years I have mentally thanked Virgel that they are thornless - and I did again this morning as I was wading into the patch. It was bittersweet this year though, because Virgel’s funeral was this week. So I couldn’t help thinking about how one small action can have such a huge impact in another person’s life and continues to impact them even after you’re gone. It’s important to take time to help others, pray for them, talk with them, be kind to them. You never know what lasting impact you can have for the kingdom.
Because the blackberries are thornless, I’m more willing to dive into the middle of the patch, but it’s still rather tricky. Those blackberry shoots go all directions and it’s easy to get tripped up while you’re stretching for a berry just out of reach. It’s a good reminder to remember that even when it’s a fairly safe endeavor, there are still things which can cause you to stumble if you’re not paying attention.
The next thought which intruded upon my blackberry picking involved the cat. That cat followed me into the blackberry patch. Who knows why! Maybe she was just curious as to what I was doing - because after all, curiosity and all that. But isn’t it interesting how our actions are viewed by people around us. Because we love God and honor Him by obeying His commandments, others are intrigued by what they see in our lives. They might be attracted to Christ because of our actions, just as a cat was attracted to the blackberry patch. (The dogs follow me out to the blackberry patch hoping I’ll give them bites. But I’ve never seen the cat eat a blackberry . . . )
And along the lines of life, I thought about how wonderful the blackberry harvest has been this year. The three weeks of rain we had in late June/early July did wonders for our harvest. They are huge and juicy and sweet. Of course, the Living Water in our lives makes all the difference too, doesn’t it!? We are much more visible, more sweet and flavorful, if we have the Holy Spirit indwelling us. We make a better impression for God if we are sustained by the Living Water!
Another thought which attracted my attention as I was picking blackberries is the phrase: Good is good enough. I probably could have found another handful of blackberries had I really worked at it. But there comes a time when good is good enough. I don’t need to pick every berry. It’s just not worth the effort and besides, the birds like the ones I leave. So are there things in our lives that we just need to identify as being done well enough and call it good? It’s a balance, I know, because we are working for the Lord and we want to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect. But keeping every speck of dust out of your house, every tiny weed out of the garden, picking every blackberry - there comes a point when we realize that we should be doing something more valuable with our time. Good is good enough for that particular task.
Last thought of the day: I have to do something with my berries. The kids are eating a lot of them fresh, taking them to work in their lunches every day. But there’s a few left over. What a shame it would be to let them get moldy. All that picking wasted! All that wonderful fruit spoiled. In a similar way, if you have something you can do for God today, do it. Don’t wait. Redeem the time for the days are evil. We don’t know how much time each of us has. Make the most of it. Me? I’m going to be making blackberry jelly.
❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
September
A Taste of Glory
by Cynthia Saladin
Dad (Bill Rollins) had the opportunity to speak on sabbath in Tulsa the day before Christopher and Alyssa’s wedding. He cited 2 Corinthians 6:1 “ . . . we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain,” and exhorted us all to be mindful of the opportunity we have at the Feast to experience the glory of God. It’s an appointment set by the King of the universe. As Andy Laws said at the Feast in Michigan in 2017, that means we’d better “suit up and show up.” And we do; we make preparations, reserve accommodations, plan meals, make food, kennel the dogs, and so on. But we also have to be very intentional about preparing to meet with God for eight days. That is, as we’re busy making plans for what we’re going to do, spending time with God has to be at the top of the list - because we’re not just taking a vacation from work. It’s so much more than that!! It’s a rehearsal, a reminder of God’s plan for us as the temple of the living God, the Bride of Christ, the priests of God.
As we were drinking in that exhortation not to miss God’s glory, we experienced a repetition of the admonition: Christopher and Alyssa’s wedding. As the Bride of Christ, Ephesians 5:27 tells us that Jesus cleanses the Bride by the washing of water with the word. But Revelation 19:7 says that the Bride has made herself ready. We need to make ourselves ready!!
I cannot tell you how many boxes have arrived at our home over the past couple of months, as Alyssa prepared for the wedding. But it wasn’t only the physical decorations and stuff! I’ve gotten to witness discussions about rings, the wedding venue, the date, and the myriad of things Alyssa worked on in preparation for the day. All of the planning, the preparation, the help from family and friends - it has been a lot of work for her. Make no mistake: she wanted to do it. She wanted the wedding to be beautiful. And I found myself wondering if we, if I, spend as much time preparing to be the Bride of Christ.
Christopher and Alyssa wrote their own vows and pledged before God and all of the witnesses to love one another and to build their marriage until death. Have we, do I, exhibit that kind of devotion to Jesus? Do I prefer Him above all others? Submit myself to Him in all things? Love Him with all of my heart, soul, and strength? I’d like to say, “Well, yes! Of course!” But I know myself and how I sometimes want my own way. I sometimes dread what He wants me to go through - a lack of trust? I am struck by the fact that more purifying is necessary before the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
Another aspect of the wedding emphasized God’s plan. We talked about the marriage of Christopher and Alyssa and how that links our families together. Now, when Aletha Dennis stands up and calls her family to her, Matt and Renee Steele stand up. Trevor and Krissy Dennis and all of the Whittleys stand up. Shawn and Kim stand up. Then Christopher and Alyssa and all the Saladins. Then the Mannings. And Bill and Sally Rollins.
Then Nate and Sylvia. Then Margo and Bernice. Then Maria and Johnny Snyder. And Aletha looks at Johnny and says, “I didn’t realize I was related to you!!”
We could do something similar with so many of the families in the churches of God. How about the Laws-Gaffney-White-DiFranco-Kincade-Hoefker family? The ties that bind us into a family are growing stronger! And the Feast of Tabernacles is becoming a physical family reunion even as it has always been a spiritual family reunion.
So then, what do our families do when we get together? We talk about God. The whole wedding weekend was a conversation between people who love God, talking about Him, what He’s doing in our lives, what’s happening in our world, His plans, and applicable scriptures which direct us how, then, we should live! Exhorting, discussing, encouraging, reconnecting, rejoicing, celebrating! It’s been a full weekend.
It should come as no surprise then, that amid all of the good-bye hugs and plans for when we will see each other again, there were a few tears. Perhaps because God graciously granted us another opportunity to taste His glory, and we weren’t quite ready for it to be over.
I know I’m eager for the next taste of God’s glory; I don’t want to receive the glory of God in vain!!
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"The remarkable thing about God is that when you fear God, you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God, you fear everything else.” - Oswald Chambers
October
Where Are You? by Cynthia Saladin
What are many of your conversations centered around these days? The mask mandates? The vaccine mandates? The crisis at the southern border? The fiasco in the Middle East? The wildfires and drought conditions out West? The unrest and disquiet? What about the lies we’re being fed? I was thinking about the morass of deceit, conflict, evilness, and anxiety all around us. What a terrible place to be!!
Deliver me, O Lord, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue. (Psalm 120:2)
Do you know where this verse is? It’s in the beginning psalm of ascent. This is the psalm which starts the journey towards fellowship with God for eight days during the Feast of Tabernacles. The psalmist says he’s in the tents of Kedar, in Meshech - places which are a fair distance from Jerusalem. He’s in a place physically far from Jerusalem, but that’s not the biggest problem; it’s also spiritually distant from God and His ways.
So what does the psalmist do? He asks for God’s deliverance. That’s a good place to start - to recognize that he needs God’s help to get him out of the situation and environment in which he finds himself. But he also recognizes the ungodly state in which he dwells. He knows that he has lived far too long in a place that hates peace, and by extension, hates the Prince of Peace. He’s ready to start the journey to meet with God, to dwell with God and like-minded people.
I love that this is the first psalm of ascent! Do we take the time to think about where we are dwelling? Is it physically and spiritually far from God? Are we spending the majority of our time dwelling on the lies and deceit around us? Or are we taking steps to stop dwelling there, to dwell where there is peace?
Psalm 121 picks up this thought of looking to God for guidance and help: I lift up my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, maker of heaven and earth!
We do this, right? We go to God for help and deliverance. Right?
Then psalm 123:2 focuses our vision a little more sharply:
Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maidservant to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God, till he has mercy upon us.
It’s not about just saying a prayer for deliverance; it’s keeping your eyes fixed on Jesus Christ, not allowing your attention to be diverted towards anything else. So how does that work? What does that look like? I’m so grateful God gives us object lessons to help us understand. My object lesson in this instance is Pepper. Pepper watches me. If I get up from my desk and go into the kitchen, so does Pepper. If I go outside, he goes with me. If I go to bed, he’s got to be right there too. I have a living object lesson of what it means to keep your eyes on your master - until what? Until He has mercy upon us.
Think about that for just a minute. Why would we want to keep our eyes fixed on our Master? And secondly, why would we need mercy? Think about what Pepper does. He wants to know where I am so that he can be with me. He follows me. He is willing to try to eat whatever it is I’m eating. If someone scolds him because he’s underfoot, he leans up against me for protection.
So do I follow Jesus? Do I spend time in the Word so that I can be as close to Him and His ways as possible? Do I take in daily of the Bread of Life? If someone scolds me, do I press closer to Him? Do I rely completely on Him for provision, protection, and salvation?
Why does the psalmist need mercy? Oh, who doesn’t need mercy? We have all fallen short of perfection? We have all sinned. We need His mercy desperately. So here’s the psalmist encouraging us to keep our eyes on God, to follow Him, imitate Him, take Him into our very beings, until God has mercy upon us.
There are other incredible gems in the psalms of ascent, but the last one makes me rejoice every time I recite it - although who can really just recite it. You have to sing it!
Come, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who stand by night in the house of the Lord! Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the Lord! Psalm 134:1-2
What an incredible contrast between Psalm 120 and Psalm 134! The psalmist started out in a deceitful, violent land far from God. Now he’s in God’s presence with fellow believers singing praise and thanksgiving to God. But it didn’t just happen; he had to take intentional steps to recognize where he was, ask for God’s deliverance, and keep his eyes focused on God as he undertook the pilgrimage to be in God’s presence always . . . because isn’t that what the Feast of Tabernacles pictures? Having God spread His tent over us and dwell with Him forever?
November
God’s Gift of Cats and Dogs by Cynthia Saladin
Virginia (the cat) was overjoyed that we were home from the Feast. She galloped around the living room and pounced on the carpet. She has been particularly accepting of cuddles and petting. In fact, she has been jumping into laps, curling up, and going to sleep. She’s so glad we’re home.
Jonathan, Jennifer, and Amanda arrived home before Ron and I did. After Pepper vocally expressed his delight at their arrival, he searched the house for me. When we finally got home about thirty minutes later, he cried and raced between all of us, hardly able to contain his excitement. Then he followed me everywhere, not willing to let me be out of his sight for the next couple of days.
As Jonathan said during his message at the Feast, staying there is not an option; it’s not sustainable. We have responsibilities and tasks waiting for us at home - all part of God’s plan for our lives. Nevertheless, we hate to see the end of the Feast. We feel the sadness that it’s over. We miss the tangible presence of Lord in our midst. Still, we go home, and our minds begin sorting through the to-do lists as we make plans to pick up our routines again.
Except . . . we’ll never be exactly the same. We aren’t picking up our routines exactly as we left them. We’ve rejoiced with our spiritual family; we’ve heard exhortations and encouragements.
And hopefully, we’ve internalized them - at least a nugget or two, or maybe a plethora of ideas and concepts. Prayerfully, we’ve tasted the glory of the Lord, and we’ve come to realize that we can take it with us! We don’t have to leave it at the Feast!
Oh, and God gives us one more gift, post-Feast: He gives us people in our lives who are very happy to see us; they truly missed us! We matter. We make a difference. God has placed us in this world to make a difference - for His glory and honor! And it’s nice to have the validation that it is so. But maybe, just maybe, initially at least, we’re not quite ready to get back into our lives. So God blesses us with pets who are unreservedly overjoyed that we’re home. It’s a gift. It’s a gentle way to remind us of the importance of our lives to others. And besides, stroking a purring cat is a pretty nice way to combat the post-Feast blues and to reacclimate to life at home.
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Don’t You Know Who You Are by Cynthia Saladin
There’s a Tenth Avenue North song that goes
You are more than the choices that you've made,
You are more than the sum of your past mistakes,
You are more than the problems you create,
I’ve made some bad choices. I remember choosing not to keep my finger nails short my freshman year of high school. That was a bad choice. Gwen, our milk cow, let me know about it in no uncertain terms. I wore a hoof-shaped bruise in my midriff for a couple of weeks.
I’ve made some mistakes. Christopher remembers the birthday cake that I made for him one year. It wouldn’t come out of the pan. I took it out in chunks and we had birthday mound instead of birthday cake.
I’ve created problems that caused suffering. When I was a kid, I wasn’t sensitive to poison ivy. But my grandmother was. Once when we’d been playing outside in the trees, we’d gotten into some poison ivy. We came inside, not thinking anything of it, and sat down. Grandma later sat in that chair and she broke out in huge welts of poison ivy. What a problem I created!
But Tenth Avenue North sings that I’m more than those choices. I’m more than the mistakes. I’m more than the problems I create. These things don’t define who I am anymore. Why? Because I’ve been remade.
Remade? What does that mean?
When I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior, He took the penalty for my sins. But more than that, God gave me the gift of the Holy Spirit, to change me from my carnal nature with all of its bad choices and horrible mistakes and painful problems. I’m a new creature, being formed in the image of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). Because Jesus Christ bought me with His blood (1 Peter 1:18-19), because He died to pay the penalty for my sin, I am now free to make good choices, to avoid mistakes, and to prevent problems.
Jesus Christ took me out of the miry clay and set my feet upon a rock (Psalm 40:2), the Rock, which is Jesus, where I am secure. As Casting Crowns sings, “Not because of who I am, but because of what You’ve done; not because of what I’ve done, but because of Who You are.” It’s not about me or what I’ve done. It’s all the work of God in me, creating a new creature to glorify Himself. So when Ten Avenue North sings, “Don’t you know who you are? And what’s been done for you,” our thoughts go to the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread, Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, and the hope that I have because of what He did for me.
When Paul writes, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” I know that it’s because of what Jesus has done for me. It’s not about me. It’s all about Him and the work that God is doing in me. I am more than the choices that I’ve made. I am more than the sum of my past mistakes. I am more than the problems I create. I’ve been remade. And Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:24-25)
So I have one question to ask you: Don’t you know who you are, and what’s been done for you?
🎈 🎈 🎈 🎈 🎈 🎈 🎈 🎈 🎈 🎈
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December
Walking by Faith, Not by Sight
by Tricia Manning
Here is something interesting: How can we know if the teachings in the bible are from God or from man? The book of John says we can only know if we actually do his will. “If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority” Joh 7:17.In other words, we must actually try a biblical truth to know if it is true. Typically we like to “look before we leap” but that may not be possible with the things of God. Apparently we cannot stand aloof and figure out if Godly things will work based on knowledge of the rules governing this world. Paul says they will seem like foolishness. “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” 1Co 2:12 -14.
Take as just one straightforward example, tithing. From the natural, logical viewpoint someone may say, “We don’t earn enough money to even buy necessities, so
we don’t have enough to give to God or to celebrate the Feast.” In contrast, the spiritual person tithes simply by faith in obedience to God’s commands. “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house and thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.” Mal3:10. We had some friends in Wisconsin who continually marveled at the result. When they began setting aside tithes to give to God and go to the Feast they suddenly felt they had an abundance of money. David and I experienced the same thing. In graduate school we earned wages that even when combined fell below the poverty line, yet when we obeyed God somehow we had enough. Numbers don’t lie, but this is something different. This is something spiritually discerned and seemingly outside the laws of simple mathematics. All of you were at the Feast and surely have experienced this same phenomenon. Tithing is just one example though. In so many ways we walk by faith and not by sight.
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"Trust in God, but don't dance in a small boat.” ~Irish saying
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Open My Eyes
by Cynthia Saladin
I had a life-changing ten minutes last week. That’s all the time it took to remove the cataract from my right eye and replace the lens. Granted, I couldn’t see well right away, and the surgeon tells me my vision will continue to improve over the next few weeks. But the difference is incredible! On the way to the
hospital, I couldn’t read speed limit signs until the car was even with them. I couldn’t see the color of the stop lights - or even if they were working - until it would have been too late to stop. I couldn’t tell whether the blob in the field was a hay bale or a deer or neither. But now! I’m delighting in the clarity of my distance vision. And I’m shocked that what was my good eye is now my bad eye and it’s bad! It’s my left eye that I was using to see. It’s the left eye that can’t see the color of the traffic lights or the speed limit signs because my vision from my right eye was worse than that!
The phrase “the scales have fallen from her eyes” has taken on a whole new meaning for me - specifically the process of the scales forming in the first place. It didn’t happen overnight. Gradually, bit by bit, the cataract formed. Slowly, over time, it stole my sight.
Is that how things happen in our lives? Bit by bit, gradually? Children growing up. Learning to read. Learning to play the piano. Building muscles or losing muscles. Losing your hearing. Losing your memory. Losing your zeal for God? Losing your devotion to drawing closer to Him? Becoming deceived?
Change happens. That’s life. There’s nothing static. You’re either growing or you’re shrinking. You’re either thriving or you’re dying. You don’t stay the same. Entropy, gravity, and time all continue to act upon your life.
Diane focused on being intentional about our relationship with God in her seminar at the Feast in 2018. That word “intentional” has stuck in my thought processes. If we make plans to spend more time practicing the piano or working on our reading, we’ll get better. If we just make a mental note to do something, it’s much less likely to get done. If we think things will just happen the way we want them to, we are fooling ourselves.
If you don’t want to grow farther from God, if you don’t want to lose your zeal, if you don’t want to be deceived, you are going to have to take action. You’re going to have to work on the relationship with Him. Relationships don’t just happen. They require time and diligence and planning.
We sing so many songs which talk about having vision (Be Thou My Vision, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus) and God opening our eyes (Open My Eyes, I Saw the Light). If you want to see clearly, don’t let the spiritual cataracts form. Be intentional about seeking God. If you are determined to put Him first, then you’ll find Him, because you’ll be seeking Him with all of your heart - and your eyes.
❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
“The welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants.”
~ Albert Camus
Escaping the Funk by Ron Saladin
This is the Day by Cynthia Saladin
February
Open My Eyes That I May See . . . by Ron Saladin
Tracking by Cynthia Saladin
March
Showering Your People and Outwitting the Foxes by Ron Saladin
Living With a Loose Rein by Cynthia Saladin
Don't Give Up - submitted by Demian Rollins
Bunny Philosophy
April
Lambkins by Ron Saladin
The Attraction of Rotting Carcasses by Cynthia Saladin
May
Do the Next Thing by Cynthia Saladin
Common Senseless by Dan White
June
To Clearly See by Cynthia Saladin
July
Find What's Best by Cynthia Saladin
August
Lessons From the Berry Patch by Cynthia Saladin
September
A Taste of Glory by Cynthia Saladin
October
Where Are You? by Cynthia Saladin
November
God's Gift of Cats and Dogs by Cynthia Saladin
Don't You Know Who You Are? by Cynthia Saladin
December
Walking By Faith, Not By Sight by Tricia Manning
Open My Eyes by Cynthia Saladin
January 2021
Escaping the Funk
by Ron Saladin
I enjoy life, generally speaking. I much prefer being a sentient being over existing as a rock. Rocks can last a long time and be quite useful, but they tend to show no emotion even when they accomplish something important, like edging your flower patch.
One reason I enjoy life is I like to accomplish things, to see a positive result for my efforts. So I was distressed recently when I considered my long list of stuff to do and I simply did not feel like I wanted to do any of it, or, even worse, anything.
I felt very conflicted. I wanted to get at least something done, but I just couldn’t get moving. It was a bit unusual for me and uncomfortable. I wondered what was wrong, and as I sat considering, one part of my brain said, “You’re in a funk.”
I’m at the age when my brain doesn’t always work as harmoniously as it once did. So another part of my brain said, “What’s a funk?” They decided to look it up.
Besides being a music genre and part of the name of a famous dictionary, the word funk has several meanings and exists a bit differently in British and American usage. The British usage can refer to a coward or avoiding a job or person or something out of fear. The American usage sees funk as being in a state of depression.
My brain agreed: I was definitely experiencing the American version. I was in a depressed funk. One part said to the other part, “Told you so.”
Knowing what I was experiencing was valuable but only if it helped to provide an escape route from the prison. In Zechariah 4:10 God asks, “For who hath despised the day of small things?” The people of God there were in a bit of a funk, if I may use my paraphrase. There was no way they could make the temple they were building to come close to the majesty of Solomon’s temple. They did not need to worry about that though; their job was to get it done.
I decided to just get something done. I picked an easy job that was overdue. I began to wade through the thick molasses-like aura still surrounding me and began to do something that needed to be done.
It was amazing.
Some two hours or so later, I had accomplished several things on my list, and I was hurrying against sundown to do more, wishing I had more time.
Maybe you’re in a funk. There’s sure lots of reasons one could point to. There’s this SARS-CoV-2 virus out there which has changed how much of the world lives. We look forward to the time things can get back to “normal.”
Maybe that will happen. Maybe it won’t.
Maybe this is the time when we will begin to experience waves of problems which just don’t fully go away. Sort of like a woman with birth pangs looking to be delivered. Here in the U.S. we are looking at our society, government, and media in shambles, a far cry from what we once were.
Some fear a civil war. There are lots of reasons to be in a funk if you look for them.
In the parable of the pounds, Jesus gave His servants an order to “Occupy till I come.” In other words, keep busy, do your business. Their occupying was to be productive for the Master, accomplishing something worthwhile regardless of the time in which they lived.
There’s lots of ways to obey that order. As long as you’re not in a funk.
I do not presume I am revealing any new information here. Most of us, if not all, have experienced what I have described. Nevertheless, we humans have a tendency to forget sometimes the solutions to the problems that plague us.
In a funk? Try doing something easy which does need to be done. Don’t discount small starts or lesser projects. Take appropriate action and watch the blimp of funkiness deflate. Just start. Who knows? Maybe God will notice and get involved with your efforts.
It does seem to me, at least at times, God enjoys starting small and building.
After all, isn’t that what He is doing with us?
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This is the Day by Cynthia Saladin
We humans have a hard time finding the right balance. Like a pendulum, we tend to swing back and forth, never quite finding the middle ground of moderation in all things. Take, for instance, the tension that exists between setting goals and looking to the future vs. being content in the moment and enjoying the trip.
One of the best parts of going to the Feast of Tabernacles when I was a kid was leaving a couple of weeks early and taking our time getting to the Feast. One year we drove through Glacier National Park and up into Canada. One year we visited Mesa Verde and the Grand Canyon on our way to Tucson. One of my favorite memories of the Feast in Colorado Springs in 1981 was finding a waterfall, unexpectedly, and stopping to explore.
But most of life isn’t like that. You don’t take the time to do something off agenda. When you’re young, you want to be 16 so you can get your driver’s license. Then you start planning where you’re going to go to college. All of school is set up with goals, milestones to meet. First we conquer this curriculum/textbook, then we go onto the next. We mold our offspring into setting goals and working hard to achieve them. Even decades removed from college, I’m still working on those goals. Most of the time, I have a to-do list that has more than seventeen things on it! For each day! I have a goal to accomplish and I’m determined to meet that goal.
And that’s not a bad thing. It’s important to lead a productive life. But The List can’t take over my life. When it does, because it’s easy to become addicted to the feelings of accomplishment, then you lose the spontaneity of enjoying the little things that crop up unexpectedly. You become so focused on the future (your life, your children’s lives, the country, etc) that you become almost immobilized by worry. You plow full steam ahead into taking anxious thought about tomorrow. And in the process, you miss the joy from finding a frost flower early in the morning, or seeing a deer poking her head out at the edge of the trees, or just being quiet in front of the fireplace with a cup of hot chocolate. You can’t become so driven that it takes over your life and you neglect to be still and know that He is God.
There’s a quietness and peace which comes from withdrawing from the hubbub and chaos around you, taking time to seek God and be in His presence daily. The God who created fragrant roses expects us to smell them as we pass by. He expects us to enjoy the flavors of the food He has provided. He must delight in the antics of our pets as much as we do - He’s the One who created them to be such fun creatures! What a huge insult not to enjoy and thank God for the abundance of all things!!
It occurred to me that our lives have to be like my teaching/plan book. Each summer I sit down and prayerfully consider the courses I’m going to be teaching my kids. But I would never dream of getting out my plan book and writing down in INK what we’re going to do each day of each week for the whole school year. I do know some teachers and homeschool parents who tried doing that. But they only made that mistake once! There are too many things (called life) that interferes with what we think we’re going to be able to accomplish. Now you can either be flexible and embrace unexpected, or you can get really stressed because things aren’t going the way you planned. Seems almost ludicrous when you put it in those terms, doesn’t it? And yet, isn’t that what we tend to do our entire lives. We have a plan and when things don’t go according to plan, we get all bent out of shape.
I can’t help but come back to Psalm 118:24: This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Doesn’t it make you think: regardless of what tasks you have before you, regardless of what unplanned detours you may be taking, God is still in control. He’s sovereign. There’s nothing that is happening to you that is a surprise to Him. So be prudent. Make plans. But be flexible in the unexpected. Enjoy the life God has given us. And strive for moderation in all things, knowing that we’re to be about the Father’s business, to His glory and honor.
February
Open My Eyes That I May See . . .
by Ron Saladin
I have an old truck, a 1993 S10. I decided to remove the spare tire and wheel from the underside of the vehicle. It had a factory-installed lock on it requiring a key. To the best of my knowledge the tire had never been removed since its original installation, and after some 27 years of being exposed to road slosh, it was in rather sad shape.
When I bought the truck from a friend, two keys were in the glovebox for the spare tire lock. That was some ten years ago. I looked, but, naturally, I found no keys. Keys have a way of sprouting little key feet and sneaking off to hiding places. At least in my house.
So I began to look elsewhere. We have a long key chain with dozens of mystery keys on it, as well as other chains with probable labels on them. I gathered them up and made my way back to the underside of the truck. I was so agitated by now I didn’t want to wait for the next day. I lay under the truck in the dark with a flashlight and a piece of cardboard to provide some ease from the damp ground and the cold. It began to rain.
I patiently tried all the keys that even looked remotely like they might fit, which was practically all of them. Some fit in the lock, but nothing would turn far enough to open the lock. After
retrying many of the keys, I decided on another approach, but I would wait for daylight.
Taking the drill, hammer, and pry bars, I returned to the underside of the truck. I proceeded to decimate the lock. It resisted me, as locks often resist the efforts of amateur locksmiths. In spite of a cramped working space, difficult angles, and falling rust, the lock finally gave up. The tire and rim was off! I enjoyed the victory even as I kicked myself for having lost the keys.
A few days later, I needed to put some paperwork in the truck. I opened the glovebox and went through some of the items there. Yep, you guessed it. In a small container I thought only contained change, I found two keys. Clearly labeled: spare tire.
I sat in the passenger seat stunned, chagrinned. All the hours of searching and aggravated work was unnecessary. The key was right there all along, a few feet away from my problem. After some self-administered rear-end kicking, I analyzed how my oversight happened.
First, I was in a hurry. I did not take the time to search as I should have. Second, I envisioned the keys to be openly visible or in a different container. I was expecting to see something different than what was really there.
Sometimes we read the Bible in a hurry. True believers are always looking to God’s Word, the Bible, for truth. Truth, however, sometimes does not look like we expect it to. Our preconceived ideas can, hopefully not often, result in us not seeing what is really there.
Curiously, I found what I had been looking for after my preconceived ideas were no longer a factor. In fact, I wasn’t even looking.
Isaiah 65:1-2: I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought me not: I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name. I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts.
I am not suggesting we are all rebellious people provoking God to anger. Perhaps though, sometimes our own thoughts get in the way of our walk with God and understanding His Ways and His communications to us in His Word. His words are like keys unlocking hidden truths on how to live life. Sometimes our preconceived ideas of what we are reading prevent us from seeing what is really there.
The older I get and the longer I walk in this Way, the more I am in indescribable awe of the infinite intellect, power, and majesty of our God. After decades of reading the Bible, I still see new depths of meaning and surprising ways it all fits together.
More so now than ever before, it seems.
In a not-too-distant, new aeon, I envision a time when I will sit chagrinned again, reflecting on just how many keys I had overlooked. I will rue over just how often I was blind to what was right before me.
O Lord, open my eyes that I may see.
Please.
🗝 🗝 🗝 🗝 🗝 🗝 🗝 🗝 🗝 🗝 🗝
Tracking
by Cynthia Saladin
Walking the dogs in the mornings has become a little more interesting. Velvet is almost deaf, and, with her cataracts, almost blind. She still likes going for a walk, but is understandably reluctant to venture too far from the house unless she’s sure I’m there. I watch her relying more and more on her sense of smell. If Ebony has already gone down the path, Velvet is much more willing to follow.
This morning was fun. There was a light dusting of snow on the ground, which just seemed to invigorate the labs. Ebony even wandered off into the trees for a little side exploration. Velvet actually tried to do a little running. That didn’t last long. But both of them were very aware of where I was at all times.
So I was thinking about using our senses, all of our senses, as we follow Jesus. We look for Him - in scripture, in “coincidences” that come our way, in open or closed doors. We listen for the Holy Spirit’s voice - nudging us towards one path or another, aiding us in discerning the right choice to make. Then I thought about that verse that talks about the aroma of Christ. Have I been in the presence of Christ so that I carry His aroma with me?
Then in the midst of thinking about touch, I saw some very strange tracks on the road. They were odd. I looked back over my shoulder because the dusting of snow was so light that I wasn’t leaving any tracks. So I was baffled as to what Pepper was tracking, nose to the ground.
Moments later I smiled as realization dawned. I suddenly knew what was making those very strange tracks. Pepper wasn’t tracking anything; it was Pepper’s tongue licking the snow. His feet weren’t leaving any prints, but he certainly was leaving a trail of tongue marks as he tasted his way down the road. I couldn’t help but think of Psalm 34:8, “Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!”
Our God is good! And as we follow Him down this road called life, He reaffirms that through all of our senses!!!
March 2021
Showering Your People and Outwitting the Foxes by Ron Saladin
My favorite James Taylor song is “Just shower the people you love with love; show them the way that you feel.” At least that’s part of the refrain. I was sitting at my computer when I thought of a childhood friend I had not seen or heard from in decades. I keyed his name into the search engine.
To my surprise, a newspaper article popped up concerning a project he was involved in.
Before I could adequately process that, I saw the next article.
He had unexpectedly died shortly after the newspaper article came out.
I was shocked, a bit paralyzed by information overload. We had been best friends through our teenage years. Maybe it was somebody else with the same name?
I quickly accessed the article and a picture. Older looking, of course, but unmistakably my friend from youth. From time to time over the years, I had wondered what happened to him and thought about trying to get together to rehash growing up adventures. We had a lot of them.
But I didn’t and he didn’t and now that won’t happen. Not in this age at least.
Then I began to reflect on why we lost contact with each other in the first place, after all we had shared. Those growing up years are pretty special. There was the obvious reason. He went into his career, and I was drafted, a two-year mandatory separation.
After my discharge, we did get together at times, but we were on different paths, both philosophically and spiritually. Nevertheless, friendships can survive such differences if the foundation has been solidly laid. Ours wasn’t. It had many little cracks along the way.
Even though he was a friend, he found humor in surprising me with things unpleasant, humiliating, and even painful at times. Perhaps that wasn’t so unusual with teenage boys growing up back then. Those were the days of Leave It To Beaver and Eddie Haskell. Sometimes you weren’t sure which camp Eddie was in: enemy or friend.
At some point, humiliating, painful, and unpleasant behaviors, even from friends, accumulate to the point relationships become severely damaged. When life circumstances change, the relationships often are not maintained. The desire to do so just doesn’t match the effort required.
Song of Songs comes to mind, 2:15: “Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom.”
These “foxes” would hide in vineyards and eat the ripe grapes. The time to deal with them was before the grapes were ripe, even when the vines were just blooming.
Relationships are like vineyards, requiring time and effort, but potentially producing wonderful fruit if carefully overseen. Disrespectful words, hurtful actions and being unpleasant to those we care about are like animals intent on destroying the good harvest we desire in our relationships.
The closer we draw to each other, the more vulnerable we are to being hurt by careless words and actions. Our defenses have been lowered in trust. It is a curious attribute of fallen human nature: we are often the most hurtful in our words and actions to the people we profess to care the most about.
Those we call friends comprise very special relationships. Friendships are entered into voluntarily with the consent and desire of both parties. We want our spouses, children, and closest associates to be at that level.
But that’s not always the case.
Hurtful words and disrespectful behaviors can be forgiven. We all fall short of perfection and need to forgive and to be forgiven. Most of us are probably guilty of some fox-like behavior in our past. Nevertheless, such actions over enough time can remove a relationship from friend to a lower level. Curiously, it is possible to love someone but no longer consider them a friend. Sadly, some marriages and families exist at this lower level. Given enough foxes and time, an entire vineyard can be destroyed.
Consider the vineyard God has given you. Eradicate the foxes and fence them out forever. Shower the people you love with love instead of hurtful, disrespectful words and behaviors.
You just might end up with a friend ’til death do you part
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Living With a Loose Rein by Cynthia Saladin
It doesn’t take very long working cattle to appreciate a good cow horse. And the more you work together, the more solid you become as a team. Your horse knows just which cow you want before you are even aware that you gave any signal. He’ll cut that cow out of the bunch probably without any help from you. So when I came across this quote from John Wesley the other day, I was struck by how evocative an impression it made.
We’ve all seen the Westerns where the cowboys are holding their horses on a tight rein, so much that their necks are arched. The horses look like they’re raring to go. It’s good theatrics, I suppose, but not very realistic.
On the other hand, not having any tension in the reins doesn’t work well either. One day, Brian (aka Shaggy) invited his girlfriend out to the ranch where I was working for the summer. He decided to take her horseback riding. I don’t think she’d ever been before. Shaggy put her up on Whitey, his favorite horse, and told her to grab the reins. She did . . . at the very ends, so that the reins looped down almost to the ground. And then they took off, riding much too quickly for someone who’d never ridden before. When Shaggy saw where she was holding the reins, he told her to gather them up. She started pulling them in, reaching out as far as she could and pulling them back as rapidly as she could because the fence was coming up towards her pretty quickly. Did I tell you that this was a cattle ranch? Did I mention that Shaggy used Whitey to chase cows, and that he’d spent a lot of time training this horse? Like any good cow horse, as soon as Whitey felt the tension on the reins, he stopped, instantly. The girl . . . well, physics took over. Her momentum carried her over Whitey’s head and spilled her out on the sand (thankfully) where she rolled a couple of somersaults before stopping. I don’t know whether it was the humiliation of being dumped off the horse or the fact that Shaggy was laughing so hard, but she never visited again.
So when John Wesley said that trusting God is like living with a loose rein, he didn’t mean riding horseback like Shaggy’s girl. Nor did he mean like the Lone Ranger rides Silver on the silver screen. I suspect that he meant that there’s a trust between a horse and his rider that develops over time, communication, shared experiences, shared accomplishments, heartaches, and victories.
When I was eleven, I spent a lot of that summer helping Uncle Mike chase cows. One particular day we were bringing in thirteen dries (cows that didn’t have a calf and needed to be sold at the sale barn). Those cows wanted to go anywhere but the house. Buster, my horse, was a wise, sure-footed cow horse; I was just along for the ride. At one point, the cows doubled back and Buster spun right after them. I literally reached out and grabbed the saddle horn to pull myself back into the saddle. Buster immediately stopped the pursuit so that I could regain my seat. Like I said, Buster knew what needed to be done; I was more of a liability than a help.
It’s ironic, isn’t it. We like to think when we’re up on horseback that we’re in control. We’re calling the shots. That 1800-pound horse is actually the one in control. He’s the one doing the work. He’s the one getting me from Point A to Point B. He’s the one who’s letting me go along for the ride. The amazing thing is that, when I have developed a relationship, the horse wants to please me, so he’s willing to go where I point him and chase cows when I need to move them from one place to another. But Buster also made it quite plain that he was really the one in control the day he stepped on my boot. Ever try to push a horse off the foot that he’s standing on?!
I liked John Wesley’s quote. Living with a loose rein means that there’s trust between you and God. But it’s more than that. It’s relying on Him rather than ourselves, living “with a calmer, more relaxed attitude” because you know that He’s really the One in control. He’s the One moving you from Point A to Point B. He’s the One getting the work done and providing the power. But because we have a relationship, God is also very attentive to our cry. He listens to our prayers. He takes care of us when we almost fall out of the saddle. It is not the kind of relationship where we hold Him at arm’s length - with a distant communication that is really no communication at all. When we play at being a Christian, it’s not God’s fault when we find ourselves rolling head over heels from some poor life decision. At the other end of the spectrum, God is also not anything like a genie in a bottle; He is not under our control like the stereotypical silver screen horses; He doesn’t exist to do our bidding.
God is our Protector. He enables us to work and accomplish great things. He enjoys our pleasure. He wants to hear our voice and He listens to us. But He also expects us to listen to Him. There’s mutual trust and respect and love, and He is our Friend, in the very best sense of the word. And thankfully, if we learn to live with a loose rein, He lets us go along for the ride.
Quote from: Amazing Grace, Kenneth Osbeck, “I Am His and He is Mine,” 1990, pg. 50.)
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"You only live once, but if you do it right,
once is enough.” - Mae West
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I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward - to Jesus. I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back.” Philippians 3:13-14 Msg
In 1952, Florence Chadwick attempted to swim the chilly ocean waters between Catalina Island and the California shore. She swam through foggy weather and choppy seas for fifteen hours Her muscles began to cramp, and her resolve weakened. She begged to be taken out of the water, so aides lifted her into a boat. They paddled a few more minutes., the mist broke, and Florence discovered that the shore was less than a half mile away. “All I could see was the fog,” she later explained. “I think if I could have seen the shore, I would have made it.”
Take a long look at the shore that awaits you. Don’t be fooled by the fog. The finish may be only strokes away. God may be, at this moment, lifting his hand to conduct a victory song. Angels may be assembling, saints gathering, demons trembling. Stay at it! Stay in the water. Stay in the race. Stay in the fight Forgive, one more time. Be generous, one more time. Encourage one more friend, swim one more stroke.
~devotion submitted by Demian Rollins,
original source unknown
Bunny Philosophy
There's a box with a hole at each end, and there's a rabbit in the box. The rabbit sticks his head out of the hole in one end, and a minute later he sticks it out the other end. Half a minute later, his head appears at the opposite end, a fourth of a minute later it appears at the end opposite to that one, an eighth of a minute later, etc., etc. How long will it take before the rabbit sticks its head out of both ends of the box at the same time.
In theory, two minutes. In practice, no answer is possible unless you split hares.
April
All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.
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Lambkins
by Ron Saladin
Lambs are not popular as icons for sport teams. There’s a good reason for that, of course: it is difficult to get excited about the winning probabilities of a team named the Frisky Lambs. Paired against bears, tigers, or panthers, lambs would always seem to be at a disadvantage. Even ducks would look mighty by comparison.
Nevertheless, in God’s creation lambs occupy a position of great importance. They had His attention before anything of this world even existed.
Revelation 13:8 - “And all that dwell on earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”
The Greek word for “lamb” there is arnion, meaning “a lambkin.”
Many years before, the Apostle John quoted John the Baptist referring to Jesus as the Lamb of God. The Greek there is amnos, the Lamb of sacrifice, provided by God. Through the amnos of God, we are spared from destruction as the Israelites were spared through the Passover lamb of the Exodus. A synonym to amnos is aren from which comes the diminutive arnion, a lambkin.
Throughout Revelation, it is the little lamb that is so often referred to, arnion. Perhaps this is simply a reflection of a language changing over the years. Nevertheless, Jesus used arnion when He told Peter to “Feed my lambs.”
There is something so endearing about a small lamb, so painful to think of it being killed. Yet the plan of God for the salvation of mankind would involve the painful death of a special lamb of sacrifice.
Exactly when this plan came about, we don’t know, just that it was there at the beginning of this creation. Did the Father originate the plan and reveal it to the Son? Or was it a simultaneous realization? We don’t know such things. But the Mighty God the Son would become weak, or become perceived as weak, a vulnerable creature in a world of predators.
By choice.
Even in the Garden of Gethsemane, apprehended by the wolves of this world, the Lamb could have called for thousands of angelic backups. One would have been more than enough.
But He didn’t make that request, and He went on to suffer at the hands of vicious men and die as a sacrificial creature.
We as Christians are called to imitate His submission, to take His icon of a lambkin upon ourselves. At times it means appearing near defenseless in a world filled with aggressive carnivores. It means being gentle in a world where violence is often seen as the better option. It means being discounted and seen as having little or no value by the secular worldview at large. It means being seen as a loser by those who know how to effectively manipulate others to their own advantage.
Let’s pick a number. Say one million. I believe some reading this will exist as transformed children of God a million years from now. They will be blessed to interact with God face to face, to see Him as He is.
On the other side of this seeing is God looking at us.
In the book of Revelation, the Lamb is presented as the conquering warrior, the Lion of Judah, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. The church, shaped into the image of the Lion of Judah, will be glorious beings to behold, sharing in the inheritance of Christ, shining like the stars, everliving beings of light and power.
Nevertheless, when God looks at His children even then, I suspect He will see past the lion personages to the foundation of the lambs which came first so long ago. It is needful for the lessons learned as
lambkins to shape the behaviors of the forever lions.
Take heart, team of lambs, we are still in spring training. The real season has not begun yet. Opening day doesn’t start until the Captain shows up.
Prominent prognosticators in the past such as Isaiah, Daniel, Paul, Peter, and even our Captain predict the lambs will be ultimately undefeatable. So far many of their other predictions have come true with uncanny accuracy.
Learning to be lamblike now is a forever trait blended in with the eternal strength and dominance of being a lion. Many little lambs are being shaped into the image of Jesus Christ, Lamb of God, Lion of Judah.
Go lambkins.
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“Religion says, ‘I obey;
therefore I am accepted.’
Christianity says, ‘I’m accepted, therefore I obey.’”
—Timothy Keller
The Attraction of Rotting Carcasses
by Cynthia Saladin
When Jennifer walked Pepper and Virginia up the easement a week or so ago, she was dismayed to see a decaying carcass. It would have been disgusting even if she’d been alone, but having a dog along made it so much worse. And you know why! A dog is naturally attracted to carrion. if they don’t roll in that “luscious” (to them) aroma, they’re likely to want to partake of the banquet. It’s their nature! You can’t really do anything about it. If you’re with the dog, you can scold, but you know at the first opportunity, he’ll likely be back to the smorgasbord to indulge.
Here we are, rapidly approaching the spring holy days. We’re supposed to examine ourselves (1 Corinthians 11:28) to recognize who we are in Christ and how very much we continue to need Jesus, our Redeemer and Savior. As part of our examination process, we should consider the depth of our devotion to Jesus Christ. How much do we trust Him? How much do we believe in Him? We’re not just interested in the verbal profession of belief - because words, like beauty, can be only skin deep. So we look at our actions. Our actions follow our belief; that is, what we habitually do is based on what we truly believe. Just as the dogs are naturally attracted to carrion, we will be attracted to that which is most desirable to us. Just as the dogs will take advantage of every opportunity to return to the dead carcass, we demonstrate what is nearest and dearest to our heart by where we spend our time and money. Oh, we are more devious than the dogs. (The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked! Jeremiah 17:9) When someone is watching, we may act like a Christian. But our habitual choices demonstrate our Christianity, our nature, the depth of our relationship with our Messiah. Just like the dogs, we can’t help it. It’s our nature.
So watch yourself. Consider your choices. Evaluate you reactions to what’s happening in your life, in your relationships with others, your response to what God is allowing to occur. When you’re alone, where do your thoughts default? When you have no one watching, is your standard as high as when you’re trying to impress someone? Do you agonize over giving an offering to God and think nothing of buying some expensive thing you don’t really need? What brings you the greatest peace and contentment? Is it God-centered?
If you’re like me, these questions make you cry out with intensity, “Oh wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! . . .” (Romans 7:24-25) And thus I find myself on the road to an honest examination of myself so that I may discern the Lord’s body and how very much I need my Savior. It’s a sobering and humbling realization every year just how much we are attracted by the carrion in our lives.
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“One hundred religious persons knit into
a unity by careful organization do not constitute a church any more than eleven dead men make a football team.”—AW Tozer
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You know children are growing up when they start asking questions that have answers.
May
Do the Next Thing by Cynthia Saladin
Mark Twain said, “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” There’s a lot of truth in that! Sometimes the hardest part of any project is just getting started, and this is a common problem regardless of your tasks. A tilled, but unplanted, garden can seem overwhelming. Knowing that the whole house needs to be cleaned before Passover is daunting! Re-shingling a roof, re-fencing a property, preparing a seminar presentation . . . the list grows and the sheer weight of all that there is to do becomes intense.
Many years ago, I heard an analogy based on “Fiddler on the Roof.” After the Soviets had come to their village, ransacking and making a mess, Tevye looked around at the devastation and the chickens running wild and just picked up a chicken. It’s the idea that when you’re faced with an overwhelming task, you just do the next thing. You pick up a chicken. I think of that a lot when I have a list of seventeen things to do. I just do the next thing. I pick up a chicken.
Some people like to survey their list and do the worst task first. It’s like swallowing a frog. That’s probably the worst thing that can happen to you all day long. Everything else will be more pleasant and easier to swallow, so to speak. I don’t always have that luxury. There are days I’m putting out fires.
Even when the list in front of me is so overwhelming that I just want to go back to bed and pretend I’ve nothing to do, I know that I just have to get started doing the next thing.
Think of it this way: how can God bless your efforts if you haven’t put forth any?
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Common Senseless
by Dan White
Spiritual dementia –
It affects not only moral beliefs but also plain common sense.
Romans 1 mentions spiritual dementia.
Rom 1 World English Bible 28) Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting; 29) being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, malice; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil habits, secret slanderers, 30) backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31) without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, unforgiving, unmerciful;
This passage is one of the most hated by the anti-Christ movement. God says that when people reject Him, He gives them a reprobate mind, a lack of understanding about life. They are people who are morally repugnant, yet consider themselves upstanding moralists, who freely tell others how to live their lives.
Most translations say “reprobate mind” as in that quote, copying the King James.
The Lexham Bible says: “And just as they did not see fit to recognize God, God gave them over to a debased mind, …”
The Aramaic Peshitta, in an English translation of that Aramaic translation from the Greek says: “And as they did not consent in themselves to know God, God has given them over to a weak mind, ...”
A reprobate mind is that which God rejects. A debased mind has lost its base, that base being knowledge of the Creator.
And a weak mind?
What is a weak mind?
This is.
Portland, Oregon, among several communist leaning American cities, had many days of riots last year. In response to those riots, Portland cut their police forces back.
Does that sound like good common sense? To have riots and blame them on the police protecting the city from the rioters?
The Portland City Council has passed the 2020-21 budget 3-1, after failing to pass it last week. Included in the budget are plans to cut at least $15 million from the police bureau, eliminating 84 positions...
Activists were demanding a $50 million cut to the police bureau...
“Please take a moment to celebrate this victory, and let it fuel your fire, because we're not done," one of the city council members proclaimed. https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/protests/defunding-portland-police-city-council-budget-15-million-cuts/283-239c5e3a-cfed-4dce-8775-d2c52a9df9aa
So instead of the police getting a $3 million increase as planned, they got a $15 million cut, plus being widely hated by the people they were trying to protect from the criminals.
It wasn’t just the city officials who thought like that.
“When it came time for the public testimony on the city budget last week, an astonishing 742 people signed up to be heard. The testimony went on for hours, with nearly everyone called {sic} for defunding the police.”
So as the riots and anarchy continued, Portland cut back its police. Then what happened?
The riots did not stop, as anticipated by the liberals. When the hated police backed off, the riots continued. Even right up to the present time, with pro-rioter Democrats in power, Portland is still having riots. The left wing Democrats even rioted on Biden’s inauguration day.
Plus-
Washington Examiner recent headline –
“Portland cut police funding and got a 2,000% surge in murders.”
Nor is there any plausible way to blame the availability of guns in Oregon or in neighboring states. Guns are exactly as available today as they were before this 2,000% surge in murders. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/portland-cut-police-funding-and-got-a-2-000-surge-in-murders
The Democrats are perplexed over this. They believe in the basic goodness of humanity, and if they just remove the nasty police, who don’t believe in the basic goodness of humanity, then crime will basically disappear.
But what disappeared was a number of people, specifically those who were murdered by emboldened criminals.
This liberal thinking defies common sense. They are about as immoral as any people in history, truly spiritually demented. Yet, they also have lost their common sense.
If you take away the police, then the criminals will criminalize. That’s just common sense. And that’s what happened in Portland and several other left wing lunatic cities. Crimes, including murders, surged.
I believe there is a common sense saying, from centuries past, that applies here –
While the cat’s away, the mice will play.
Also rats.
People who have lost the Creator as their spiritual base are afflicted with spiritual dementia. They think that evil is good and good is evil. Apparently, this dementia also affects not just thinking about “spiritual” things, but just plain common sense. What person in his right mind would think that police cause crime and that reducing police will reduce crime?
When people lose God, they get a debased mind. They lose true moral values and it seems they also lose their common sense. Losing the knowledge of God has an enormous effect on a person.
The liberals are now being extremely liberal with the nation’s money. I read that 40% of America’s dollars were printed, or created, in the last year. On top of that, the Biden bunch has just rammed through a 2 trillion dollar “covid relief” package, with almost none of it going for that purpose. Now they’re talking about another 3 trillion dollar spending package. All this is on top of a national debt that already seemed unsustainable, and with an economy crippled by previous economic excesses and then covid.
Again we ask the question – What person in his right mind thinks the nation can continue like this? This defies all common sense, as if officials can continuously print money and never be held accountable.
Another example –
Democrats are now trying to end the Hyde Amendment, in effect almost from the time of the Roe vs. Wade decision that prohibits the Federal government from paying for abortions. A greatly disproportionate number of abortions have killed black babies, yet Democrats say the Hyde Amendment, which has saved untold numbers of black babies, is racist against blacks.
Does that make sense? A law that saves mostly black babies is racist against blacks?
Our liberal leaders are common senseless. They ain’t got no common sense.
Isn’t this amazing? How can smart people be so daft?
Answer?
They left God and He gave them a reprobate mind, a debased mind, a weak mind.
Many of the today’s liberals grew up in homes that taught them values that were God and Bible based, to whatever degree. When they grew up, they left that and were liberated to modern anti-Christ values. Some few turn back to reality, when they see the fruits of their new faith. But most have not, probably will not, and persist in the blindness that we see all around us today.
How we apply this lesson of spiritual dementia to ourselves?
Simple.
Get as much God as you can.
This will grow your spiritual understanding, and even help your common sense.
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Six Life Guidelines:
When you are alone, mind your thoughts.
When you are with friends, mind your tongue.
When you are angry, mind your tempter.
When you are with a group, mind your behavior.
When you are in trouble, mind your emotions.
When God starts blessing you, mind your ego.
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Parting Thought:
Your life is your story. Write well. Edit often.
June
To Clearly See by Cynthia Saladin
A few years ago, one of the kids had gotten a helium balloon. It floated around the living room for days. Towards the end of its life, it hovered close to the floor near the wood-burning stove. Now, Ron likes to sit in the early mornings, usually in the dark, drinking coffee, meditating, turning things over in his mind. Suddenly that balloon started rising and Ron’s hair rose along with it. Ron’s friend Terry said he would have shot it six times and then asked questions. We laugh about it, but the reality is that we see through a glass darkly.
Sometimes we don’t accurately identify what we’re seeing. One morning this week Ron walked into the dark living room with a cup of coffee. He noticed our black cat sleeping in the dark blue rocking chair next to him. A few moments later, he watched the chair start rocking back and forth slowly as the cat resettled herself. He thought how differently he would have reacted to seeing the chair moving had he not noticed the cat when he first sat down.
Other times, an intent to deceive with photoshopping or sleight of hand makes the seeing unbelievable. Ron and I enjoyed Reza, Branson Illusionist, in March. I still shake my head as I try to figure out how he made motorcycles disappear and a helicopter appear on stage - blades whirling!
And then there’s the discernment of the heart: we can see accurately what’s happening, but we misinterpret it. We assume motives erroneously. We jump to conclusions. We are led astray by human wisdom.
We are bombarded with a plethora of visual images every day - to the point of overload. We are fed a lot of information that, frankly, we just don’t believe is true. When you combine these two, it sets up a mindset of cautious skepticism. Or perhaps I just live surrounded by people who live by the Missouri nickname: I’m from Missouri; you’re going to have to show me.
It’s healthy to verify the accuracy of what you’re seeing. But in the world where the prince of the power of the air would like nothing more than to see the disintegration of our relationship with our Savior and God, we’d better be thorough in our verification process; that is, we’d better make sure we’re not using human wisdom, but Godly discernment. We’d better make sure that our relationship with God is intimate and secure so that we have the eyes to see what is really true. We have to quit reacting based solely on our emotions or the mental baggage that we drag around with us that distorts our perception of what’s really true.
Remember when the Syrian army surrounded Dothan to capture Elisha? (2 Kings 6:8-23) The king of Syria wanted to be shown who was telling their plans to Israel. One of his servants said that it was not a traitor in their midst, but Elisha. So the king decided to capture Elisha and surrounded the city. The young servant with Elisha was scared! Elisha prayed that God would open his eyes. He saw the horses and chariots of the army of God! Then Elisha asked God to blind the Syrian army. Elisha led the blinded army to Samaria, where the king wanted to know if he should kill this army which had been raiding and attacking Israel. Elisha told him NO! He asked God to restore their sight and he told the king to prepare a banquet for the Syrian army before sending them home.
All of this is so interesting! The king of Syria wanted to be shown the traitor. The young servant had his eyes opened to see God’s army. The Syrian army was blinded and then had their sight restored. And the king of Israel had the eyes of his heart opened to see a more Godly way of approaching this problem.
As we count down to Pentecost, I pray that part of your harvest is a clearer vision of God’s hand in your life, an accurate perception of where He wants you to go and what He wants you to be, and a Godly discernment of events around you. May God open your eyes to clearly see.
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Parting Thought:
"Intelligence is like four-wheel drive. It only allows you to get stuck in more remote places."
- Garrison Keillor
July
Find What’s Best
by Cynthia Saladin
My favorite line in Johnny Diaz’s “Breathe” is “Lay down what’s good and find what’s best.” Think about that for a moment: We have all these good things around us. Life is good. My occupation is good. My hobbies and daily activities are good. My relationship with God is good. My relationship with my family is good. Et cetera. But . . . are they best?
The Israelites coming out of Egypt refused to go into the Promised Land. They gave up God’s best for them in refusing to obey Him. Life was still good. God went with them. God provided manna for them daily. God led them. God was there. But it was not God’s best.
Elisha’s final prophecy was to Joash, King of israel (2 Kings 13). He told Joash to take a bow and arrow and shoot it out the window. It was the LORD’s arrow of victory over Syria. Then Elisha told Joash to take the arrows and strike the ground with them. Joash took the arrows and struck the ground three times. There’s no indication that Joash knew why he was striking the ground, but Elisha was angry nevertheless. He told Joash that if he’d struck the ground five or six times, he would have completely made an end of
Syria, but now he would only have three victories over them. Joash settled for less than God’s best.
Consider the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30). The servant who had been given five talents worked diligently to gain five more. The servant who had been given two talents, gained two more. Both were commended and given a reward. The servant who was given one talent made excuses and didn’t work for the master. The master did not respond favorably. He didn’t accept the excuses. In fact, that servant was cast into outer darkness where there was weeping and gnashing to teeth. Definitely not God’s best.
Then there’s the story of Elisha and the widow’s oil (2 Kings 4:1-7). The widow was in desperate straits. The creditor was coming to take her two children as slaves to pay off her debts. Elisha told her to go borrow “not a few” vessels. When she had taken the vessels into her house, she began pouring oil. As one vessel filled, her sons brought her another. Finally, she asked for another and they told her there were no more. Then the oil stopped. She had enough to pay her debts and enough left over to support herself and her children. What if she had only borrowed two jars? What if she had settled for just a few jars? She diligently borrowed “not a few” and the oil flowed until they were all filled. The widow got to experience God’s best.
There are so many examples in the Bible, so many principles for us to apply to our own lives! Do we settle for what’s good, instead of what’s best, because we don’t trust God enough to obey Him? Do we persevere in our obedience? Or do we obey for a while and then shrug and declare it good enough for government work? Do we make excuses for our disobedience and our unbelief? Do we acknowledge Him in all our ways, allowing Him to direct our paths? Do we see something good and settle for less than God’s best?
Do you remember the story of the rich fool (Luke 12:16-21)? This rich man had rich soil and abundant harvests. He wondered what he should do. Where was he going to store all of the harvest? He decided to tear down his old barn, build a bigger barn, store the harvest and sit back and take it easy. There’s nothing wrong with working hard and making plans to take it easy. Jesus’ condemnation centered on the fact that the rich fool was not rich toward God first!!
It occurred to me that although I would not be considered rich in material goods, I have a wealth that is enormous, howbeit not unlimited: time. What am I going to do with my time? What is most profitable for the kingdom? Here’s where the tricky part comes in! There are lots of good activities out there. I have one year left of homeschooling. Then what? What will I do with my time? I know I could very easily fill each day. There are so many things to do. What I don’t want to do is to settle for good. I don’t want to get busy, busy, busy. I want to take some time to sit at Jesus’ feet and figure out what God’s best is for me at this season in my life. What will bring Him glory and honor?
There’s a temptation to spend lots of time in Bible study and prayer. And that’s good too. But Jesus told His disciples to occupy until He comes. The fields are ripe unto harvest. The gospel needs to be spread. I’m not going to be part of that effort if I’m sitting at home, taking my ease, reading my Bible all day long. I need to be working for the kingdom! The days are short! But the cool thing is that God doesn’t want us just to survive; He wants us to thrive. He wants the very best for us. And it’s up to each of us to find not a few vessels for God to fill.
Trust Him, obey Him, honor Him, and find what’s best!
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Parting Thoughts:
"The art of language requires skills in not speaking quite as much as skills in speaking."
- Eugene Peterson
The only problem with buying a book on amnesia is that you are likely to forget where you put it!
August
❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
Lessons From the Berry Patch by Cynthia Saladin
It was a delightful morning in the blackberry patch today. Yesterday’s rain washed some of the heat and humidity out of the air. The patch was still in the shade that early in the morning. And several interesting thoughts occurred to me.
From a distance, the blackberry patch doesn’t look like there’s much fruit left this summer. But after thirty minutes of picking, I had half a gallon. That’s pretty good for going into the third week of the blackberry harvest! And isn’t it interesting how that works in our lives as well? As people get older, sometimes they start to feel like they don’t have much left to offer - to other people or to God. But that’s just not the case. There’s still much valuable fruit for the kingdom that they can produce!
I like picking blackberries because the really ripe ones have to go into my mouth. If I put them in the bucket and brought them into the house to wash, they’d just fall apart. They’re that ripe. So into my mouth they go. So sweet. So incredibly delicious! But they are so ripe that sometimes they disintegrate and I end up dropping them instead. It makes me think of that saying: There’s many a slip between cup and lip. You have something so very precious in your hand and it never makes it into your mouth. Sometimes it’s through carelessness, not paying close enough attention, or because you don’t care enough to be intentional about it. I hope we don’t treat our relationship with God that way! If we truly recognized the value of the relationship we would make it a priority so that it didn’t slip through our fingers. And oh how very sweet and precious that relationship with God is!!
Part of picking blackberries is wading into the patch. Thankfully there aren’t too many chiggers this summer, although I am sporting a few bites. But the other blessing in our patch is that a church friend, Virgel Tow, bought those blackberry bushes for us many years ago when he saw them on sale. He thought we needed thornless blackberries. Oh how many times over the years I have mentally thanked Virgel that they are thornless - and I did again this morning as I was wading into the patch. It was bittersweet this year though, because Virgel’s funeral was this week. So I couldn’t help thinking about how one small action can have such a huge impact in another person’s life and continues to impact them even after you’re gone. It’s important to take time to help others, pray for them, talk with them, be kind to them. You never know what lasting impact you can have for the kingdom.
Because the blackberries are thornless, I’m more willing to dive into the middle of the patch, but it’s still rather tricky. Those blackberry shoots go all directions and it’s easy to get tripped up while you’re stretching for a berry just out of reach. It’s a good reminder to remember that even when it’s a fairly safe endeavor, there are still things which can cause you to stumble if you’re not paying attention.
The next thought which intruded upon my blackberry picking involved the cat. That cat followed me into the blackberry patch. Who knows why! Maybe she was just curious as to what I was doing - because after all, curiosity and all that. But isn’t it interesting how our actions are viewed by people around us. Because we love God and honor Him by obeying His commandments, others are intrigued by what they see in our lives. They might be attracted to Christ because of our actions, just as a cat was attracted to the blackberry patch. (The dogs follow me out to the blackberry patch hoping I’ll give them bites. But I’ve never seen the cat eat a blackberry . . . )
And along the lines of life, I thought about how wonderful the blackberry harvest has been this year. The three weeks of rain we had in late June/early July did wonders for our harvest. They are huge and juicy and sweet. Of course, the Living Water in our lives makes all the difference too, doesn’t it!? We are much more visible, more sweet and flavorful, if we have the Holy Spirit indwelling us. We make a better impression for God if we are sustained by the Living Water!
Another thought which attracted my attention as I was picking blackberries is the phrase: Good is good enough. I probably could have found another handful of blackberries had I really worked at it. But there comes a time when good is good enough. I don’t need to pick every berry. It’s just not worth the effort and besides, the birds like the ones I leave. So are there things in our lives that we just need to identify as being done well enough and call it good? It’s a balance, I know, because we are working for the Lord and we want to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect. But keeping every speck of dust out of your house, every tiny weed out of the garden, picking every blackberry - there comes a point when we realize that we should be doing something more valuable with our time. Good is good enough for that particular task.
Last thought of the day: I have to do something with my berries. The kids are eating a lot of them fresh, taking them to work in their lunches every day. But there’s a few left over. What a shame it would be to let them get moldy. All that picking wasted! All that wonderful fruit spoiled. In a similar way, if you have something you can do for God today, do it. Don’t wait. Redeem the time for the days are evil. We don’t know how much time each of us has. Make the most of it. Me? I’m going to be making blackberry jelly.
❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
September
A Taste of Glory
by Cynthia Saladin
Dad (Bill Rollins) had the opportunity to speak on sabbath in Tulsa the day before Christopher and Alyssa’s wedding. He cited 2 Corinthians 6:1 “ . . . we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain,” and exhorted us all to be mindful of the opportunity we have at the Feast to experience the glory of God. It’s an appointment set by the King of the universe. As Andy Laws said at the Feast in Michigan in 2017, that means we’d better “suit up and show up.” And we do; we make preparations, reserve accommodations, plan meals, make food, kennel the dogs, and so on. But we also have to be very intentional about preparing to meet with God for eight days. That is, as we’re busy making plans for what we’re going to do, spending time with God has to be at the top of the list - because we’re not just taking a vacation from work. It’s so much more than that!! It’s a rehearsal, a reminder of God’s plan for us as the temple of the living God, the Bride of Christ, the priests of God.
As we were drinking in that exhortation not to miss God’s glory, we experienced a repetition of the admonition: Christopher and Alyssa’s wedding. As the Bride of Christ, Ephesians 5:27 tells us that Jesus cleanses the Bride by the washing of water with the word. But Revelation 19:7 says that the Bride has made herself ready. We need to make ourselves ready!!
I cannot tell you how many boxes have arrived at our home over the past couple of months, as Alyssa prepared for the wedding. But it wasn’t only the physical decorations and stuff! I’ve gotten to witness discussions about rings, the wedding venue, the date, and the myriad of things Alyssa worked on in preparation for the day. All of the planning, the preparation, the help from family and friends - it has been a lot of work for her. Make no mistake: she wanted to do it. She wanted the wedding to be beautiful. And I found myself wondering if we, if I, spend as much time preparing to be the Bride of Christ.
Christopher and Alyssa wrote their own vows and pledged before God and all of the witnesses to love one another and to build their marriage until death. Have we, do I, exhibit that kind of devotion to Jesus? Do I prefer Him above all others? Submit myself to Him in all things? Love Him with all of my heart, soul, and strength? I’d like to say, “Well, yes! Of course!” But I know myself and how I sometimes want my own way. I sometimes dread what He wants me to go through - a lack of trust? I am struck by the fact that more purifying is necessary before the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
Another aspect of the wedding emphasized God’s plan. We talked about the marriage of Christopher and Alyssa and how that links our families together. Now, when Aletha Dennis stands up and calls her family to her, Matt and Renee Steele stand up. Trevor and Krissy Dennis and all of the Whittleys stand up. Shawn and Kim stand up. Then Christopher and Alyssa and all the Saladins. Then the Mannings. And Bill and Sally Rollins.
Then Nate and Sylvia. Then Margo and Bernice. Then Maria and Johnny Snyder. And Aletha looks at Johnny and says, “I didn’t realize I was related to you!!”
We could do something similar with so many of the families in the churches of God. How about the Laws-Gaffney-White-DiFranco-Kincade-Hoefker family? The ties that bind us into a family are growing stronger! And the Feast of Tabernacles is becoming a physical family reunion even as it has always been a spiritual family reunion.
So then, what do our families do when we get together? We talk about God. The whole wedding weekend was a conversation between people who love God, talking about Him, what He’s doing in our lives, what’s happening in our world, His plans, and applicable scriptures which direct us how, then, we should live! Exhorting, discussing, encouraging, reconnecting, rejoicing, celebrating! It’s been a full weekend.
It should come as no surprise then, that amid all of the good-bye hugs and plans for when we will see each other again, there were a few tears. Perhaps because God graciously granted us another opportunity to taste His glory, and we weren’t quite ready for it to be over.
I know I’m eager for the next taste of God’s glory; I don’t want to receive the glory of God in vain!!
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"The remarkable thing about God is that when you fear God, you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God, you fear everything else.” - Oswald Chambers
October
Where Are You? by Cynthia Saladin
What are many of your conversations centered around these days? The mask mandates? The vaccine mandates? The crisis at the southern border? The fiasco in the Middle East? The wildfires and drought conditions out West? The unrest and disquiet? What about the lies we’re being fed? I was thinking about the morass of deceit, conflict, evilness, and anxiety all around us. What a terrible place to be!!
Deliver me, O Lord, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue. (Psalm 120:2)
Do you know where this verse is? It’s in the beginning psalm of ascent. This is the psalm which starts the journey towards fellowship with God for eight days during the Feast of Tabernacles. The psalmist says he’s in the tents of Kedar, in Meshech - places which are a fair distance from Jerusalem. He’s in a place physically far from Jerusalem, but that’s not the biggest problem; it’s also spiritually distant from God and His ways.
So what does the psalmist do? He asks for God’s deliverance. That’s a good place to start - to recognize that he needs God’s help to get him out of the situation and environment in which he finds himself. But he also recognizes the ungodly state in which he dwells. He knows that he has lived far too long in a place that hates peace, and by extension, hates the Prince of Peace. He’s ready to start the journey to meet with God, to dwell with God and like-minded people.
I love that this is the first psalm of ascent! Do we take the time to think about where we are dwelling? Is it physically and spiritually far from God? Are we spending the majority of our time dwelling on the lies and deceit around us? Or are we taking steps to stop dwelling there, to dwell where there is peace?
Psalm 121 picks up this thought of looking to God for guidance and help: I lift up my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, maker of heaven and earth!
We do this, right? We go to God for help and deliverance. Right?
Then psalm 123:2 focuses our vision a little more sharply:
Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maidservant to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God, till he has mercy upon us.
It’s not about just saying a prayer for deliverance; it’s keeping your eyes fixed on Jesus Christ, not allowing your attention to be diverted towards anything else. So how does that work? What does that look like? I’m so grateful God gives us object lessons to help us understand. My object lesson in this instance is Pepper. Pepper watches me. If I get up from my desk and go into the kitchen, so does Pepper. If I go outside, he goes with me. If I go to bed, he’s got to be right there too. I have a living object lesson of what it means to keep your eyes on your master - until what? Until He has mercy upon us.
Think about that for just a minute. Why would we want to keep our eyes fixed on our Master? And secondly, why would we need mercy? Think about what Pepper does. He wants to know where I am so that he can be with me. He follows me. He is willing to try to eat whatever it is I’m eating. If someone scolds him because he’s underfoot, he leans up against me for protection.
So do I follow Jesus? Do I spend time in the Word so that I can be as close to Him and His ways as possible? Do I take in daily of the Bread of Life? If someone scolds me, do I press closer to Him? Do I rely completely on Him for provision, protection, and salvation?
Why does the psalmist need mercy? Oh, who doesn’t need mercy? We have all fallen short of perfection? We have all sinned. We need His mercy desperately. So here’s the psalmist encouraging us to keep our eyes on God, to follow Him, imitate Him, take Him into our very beings, until God has mercy upon us.
There are other incredible gems in the psalms of ascent, but the last one makes me rejoice every time I recite it - although who can really just recite it. You have to sing it!
Come, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who stand by night in the house of the Lord! Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the Lord! Psalm 134:1-2
What an incredible contrast between Psalm 120 and Psalm 134! The psalmist started out in a deceitful, violent land far from God. Now he’s in God’s presence with fellow believers singing praise and thanksgiving to God. But it didn’t just happen; he had to take intentional steps to recognize where he was, ask for God’s deliverance, and keep his eyes focused on God as he undertook the pilgrimage to be in God’s presence always . . . because isn’t that what the Feast of Tabernacles pictures? Having God spread His tent over us and dwell with Him forever?
November
God’s Gift of Cats and Dogs by Cynthia Saladin
Virginia (the cat) was overjoyed that we were home from the Feast. She galloped around the living room and pounced on the carpet. She has been particularly accepting of cuddles and petting. In fact, she has been jumping into laps, curling up, and going to sleep. She’s so glad we’re home.
Jonathan, Jennifer, and Amanda arrived home before Ron and I did. After Pepper vocally expressed his delight at their arrival, he searched the house for me. When we finally got home about thirty minutes later, he cried and raced between all of us, hardly able to contain his excitement. Then he followed me everywhere, not willing to let me be out of his sight for the next couple of days.
As Jonathan said during his message at the Feast, staying there is not an option; it’s not sustainable. We have responsibilities and tasks waiting for us at home - all part of God’s plan for our lives. Nevertheless, we hate to see the end of the Feast. We feel the sadness that it’s over. We miss the tangible presence of Lord in our midst. Still, we go home, and our minds begin sorting through the to-do lists as we make plans to pick up our routines again.
Except . . . we’ll never be exactly the same. We aren’t picking up our routines exactly as we left them. We’ve rejoiced with our spiritual family; we’ve heard exhortations and encouragements.
And hopefully, we’ve internalized them - at least a nugget or two, or maybe a plethora of ideas and concepts. Prayerfully, we’ve tasted the glory of the Lord, and we’ve come to realize that we can take it with us! We don’t have to leave it at the Feast!
Oh, and God gives us one more gift, post-Feast: He gives us people in our lives who are very happy to see us; they truly missed us! We matter. We make a difference. God has placed us in this world to make a difference - for His glory and honor! And it’s nice to have the validation that it is so. But maybe, just maybe, initially at least, we’re not quite ready to get back into our lives. So God blesses us with pets who are unreservedly overjoyed that we’re home. It’s a gift. It’s a gentle way to remind us of the importance of our lives to others. And besides, stroking a purring cat is a pretty nice way to combat the post-Feast blues and to reacclimate to life at home.
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Don’t You Know Who You Are by Cynthia Saladin
There’s a Tenth Avenue North song that goes
You are more than the choices that you've made,
You are more than the sum of your past mistakes,
You are more than the problems you create,
I’ve made some bad choices. I remember choosing not to keep my finger nails short my freshman year of high school. That was a bad choice. Gwen, our milk cow, let me know about it in no uncertain terms. I wore a hoof-shaped bruise in my midriff for a couple of weeks.
I’ve made some mistakes. Christopher remembers the birthday cake that I made for him one year. It wouldn’t come out of the pan. I took it out in chunks and we had birthday mound instead of birthday cake.
I’ve created problems that caused suffering. When I was a kid, I wasn’t sensitive to poison ivy. But my grandmother was. Once when we’d been playing outside in the trees, we’d gotten into some poison ivy. We came inside, not thinking anything of it, and sat down. Grandma later sat in that chair and she broke out in huge welts of poison ivy. What a problem I created!
But Tenth Avenue North sings that I’m more than those choices. I’m more than the mistakes. I’m more than the problems I create. These things don’t define who I am anymore. Why? Because I’ve been remade.
Remade? What does that mean?
When I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior, He took the penalty for my sins. But more than that, God gave me the gift of the Holy Spirit, to change me from my carnal nature with all of its bad choices and horrible mistakes and painful problems. I’m a new creature, being formed in the image of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). Because Jesus Christ bought me with His blood (1 Peter 1:18-19), because He died to pay the penalty for my sin, I am now free to make good choices, to avoid mistakes, and to prevent problems.
Jesus Christ took me out of the miry clay and set my feet upon a rock (Psalm 40:2), the Rock, which is Jesus, where I am secure. As Casting Crowns sings, “Not because of who I am, but because of what You’ve done; not because of what I’ve done, but because of Who You are.” It’s not about me or what I’ve done. It’s all the work of God in me, creating a new creature to glorify Himself. So when Ten Avenue North sings, “Don’t you know who you are? And what’s been done for you,” our thoughts go to the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread, Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, and the hope that I have because of what He did for me.
When Paul writes, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” I know that it’s because of what Jesus has done for me. It’s not about me. It’s all about Him and the work that God is doing in me. I am more than the choices that I’ve made. I am more than the sum of my past mistakes. I am more than the problems I create. I’ve been remade. And Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:24-25)
So I have one question to ask you: Don’t you know who you are, and what’s been done for you?
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December
Walking by Faith, Not by Sight
by Tricia Manning
Here is something interesting: How can we know if the teachings in the bible are from God or from man? The book of John says we can only know if we actually do his will. “If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority” Joh 7:17.In other words, we must actually try a biblical truth to know if it is true. Typically we like to “look before we leap” but that may not be possible with the things of God. Apparently we cannot stand aloof and figure out if Godly things will work based on knowledge of the rules governing this world. Paul says they will seem like foolishness. “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” 1Co 2:12 -14.
Take as just one straightforward example, tithing. From the natural, logical viewpoint someone may say, “We don’t earn enough money to even buy necessities, so
we don’t have enough to give to God or to celebrate the Feast.” In contrast, the spiritual person tithes simply by faith in obedience to God’s commands. “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house and thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.” Mal3:10. We had some friends in Wisconsin who continually marveled at the result. When they began setting aside tithes to give to God and go to the Feast they suddenly felt they had an abundance of money. David and I experienced the same thing. In graduate school we earned wages that even when combined fell below the poverty line, yet when we obeyed God somehow we had enough. Numbers don’t lie, but this is something different. This is something spiritually discerned and seemingly outside the laws of simple mathematics. All of you were at the Feast and surely have experienced this same phenomenon. Tithing is just one example though. In so many ways we walk by faith and not by sight.
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"Trust in God, but don't dance in a small boat.” ~Irish saying
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Open My Eyes
by Cynthia Saladin
I had a life-changing ten minutes last week. That’s all the time it took to remove the cataract from my right eye and replace the lens. Granted, I couldn’t see well right away, and the surgeon tells me my vision will continue to improve over the next few weeks. But the difference is incredible! On the way to the
hospital, I couldn’t read speed limit signs until the car was even with them. I couldn’t see the color of the stop lights - or even if they were working - until it would have been too late to stop. I couldn’t tell whether the blob in the field was a hay bale or a deer or neither. But now! I’m delighting in the clarity of my distance vision. And I’m shocked that what was my good eye is now my bad eye and it’s bad! It’s my left eye that I was using to see. It’s the left eye that can’t see the color of the traffic lights or the speed limit signs because my vision from my right eye was worse than that!
The phrase “the scales have fallen from her eyes” has taken on a whole new meaning for me - specifically the process of the scales forming in the first place. It didn’t happen overnight. Gradually, bit by bit, the cataract formed. Slowly, over time, it stole my sight.
Is that how things happen in our lives? Bit by bit, gradually? Children growing up. Learning to read. Learning to play the piano. Building muscles or losing muscles. Losing your hearing. Losing your memory. Losing your zeal for God? Losing your devotion to drawing closer to Him? Becoming deceived?
Change happens. That’s life. There’s nothing static. You’re either growing or you’re shrinking. You’re either thriving or you’re dying. You don’t stay the same. Entropy, gravity, and time all continue to act upon your life.
Diane focused on being intentional about our relationship with God in her seminar at the Feast in 2018. That word “intentional” has stuck in my thought processes. If we make plans to spend more time practicing the piano or working on our reading, we’ll get better. If we just make a mental note to do something, it’s much less likely to get done. If we think things will just happen the way we want them to, we are fooling ourselves.
If you don’t want to grow farther from God, if you don’t want to lose your zeal, if you don’t want to be deceived, you are going to have to take action. You’re going to have to work on the relationship with Him. Relationships don’t just happen. They require time and diligence and planning.
We sing so many songs which talk about having vision (Be Thou My Vision, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus) and God opening our eyes (Open My Eyes, I Saw the Light). If you want to see clearly, don’t let the spiritual cataracts form. Be intentional about seeking God. If you are determined to put Him first, then you’ll find Him, because you’ll be seeking Him with all of your heart - and your eyes.
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“The welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants.”
~ Albert Camus
