It was a Saturday afternoon. My husband Mark Kissed me and the boys good-by and he was out the door. He was on his way to Church to meet with his friend and band member, Mike, to practice for an upcoming concert. Minutes after he went out the door, he was back inside. He said that the station wagon wouldn’t start. The battery was dead, no lights, no radio, nothing. At first I couldn’t understand what could have happened. I was the last to drive it a few days earlier. As I thought back I had a faint memory of my two little boys playing with the over head reading lights. I must not have paid enough attention, and left them on.
Mark pulled the van around and hooked up the jumper cables. I tried turning over the engine in the station wagon, all I got was a clicking noise. “Try again.” Mark said,…more clicking noise. We let it charge awhile, revving up the van a little. I tried it again, this time a long with the clicking, the sound of the radio. More waiting while it charged, then another try, it came close to starting. last try, and thank God, it started!
I like to think that I am full of spiritual power all of the time. But sometimes I feel like that drained battery, and what I need is a direct link to the power source, God. Jesus being sort of like jumper cables, and the Holy Spirit, the power.
I remember my Dad telling me that you have to start a sitting car once in a while, or the battery would go bad. When we get away from our power source for a long period of time, our power can slowly drain. And if we are not careful, Satan will find ways of draining that power even faster, like those lights that were left on drained the battery of the station wagon.
So if you’ve been at a spiritual stand still for a long time, or Satan has found a way to speed up your draining process, give yourself a chance. Don’t try the ignition and give up. Hook up to the power source, Charge up, be patient and let God’s power grow!
When my kids were babies, I spent so much time feeding them, taking care of them, holding them, I did everything for them. As they grew, They started doing some things for themselves but I was there to help them. When they started walking I held their hand, and soon they were walking on their own. All my kids are grown and doing things on their own now. My boys still live with me but my other three even have their own places.
I took a writing class when I was in high school. I had read many books about writing but never knew what I heard in this class. This teacher taught us something I had never thought about before. This teacher said that if a story is well written then there is a purpose for everything. I started looking for that in the next books that I read, which were mystery novels. I did see that nothing in the story happened just to fill space. Everything meant something, and it all connected in the end.
I started writing when I was about 30 and living in Anaheim. I didn’t write too much before that time, maybe some poems but no stories. After becoming a Christian, I think that God had decided that I would write, because I would get stories word for word, like a gift from God. And I knew they were from God because I would get the story in the middle of the night. I would wake up with the whole story in my mind, and I couldn’t get back to sleep until I got up and wrote it down.
It was at those times I feel God had me in his arms, feeding me these stories when I first started, then He held my hand as I wrote some of the stories, and now I feel like he is standing back watching me giving me room to write these stories on my own. And at times I am wishing that He was still here spoon feeding me but I know that I have to grow up and do it on my own. I also know that all the things that Have happened to me and are happing to me are for a reason, maybe not so much before I became a Christian but now I look at the things that are happening and I can see that God doesn’t fill our time with empty space, everything is for a reason.
I thank God for this gift he has given me of writing, I thank Him for being there like a good father does, standing back watching over me, letting me do this writing on my own now. And I am glad to know that this is all for a reason, a purpose, I may not know the purpose now but I know that there will be a conclusion to my life where he wraps everything up and it will all make sense one day.
Many of us have good works, Christians and non-Christians. But do we have good fruit? Colossians 1:10 reads, “And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work.” In other words, when I help someone, “Works,” what is my perspective, or “fruit?” Galatians 5:22 tells us, “The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and self-control.” The scriptures above show us that works and fruit are two different things. Works are the good things that I do and fruits are the evidence of the Spirit working in me.
John the Baptist and Jesus tell us what will happen if we don’t have good fruit. Jesus also tells us how to tell who is a false prophet. In Matthew 3:10 John the Baptist said, “The ax is already at the root of the trees and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” In another passage Jesus warns us to, “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruits you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus by their fruit you will recognize them.”
It’s important to know that I shouldn’t just be doing good deeds, but also I should have the right perspective, or fruit. Being patient, kind and loving, having peace and joy, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control show that Jesus is working in me.
In John 15:1-5 Jesus tells us, “I am the true vine and my father is the gardener. He cuts off any branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself, it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” This scripture points out that works, or good deeds, done outside the vine, or outside Jesus are, are fruitless.
Have you ever seen a branch produce a piece of fruit laying on the ground, apart from the tree, and the roots? The branch alone doesn’t produce the fruit, the fruit is produced through the branch, just as Jesus produces fruit through us. As this example of the branch and the tree indicates, the only way that I can produce fruit is by staying in Jesus and keeping him in me.
Taking the time to examine ones self is important. If I give to someone, “works,” do I do it in love, “fruit?” If a friend also asks me for a favor and I decide to help, “works,” and is this favor done with kindness, and patience, “fruit?” Am I gentle and self-controlled in a tense situation, or do I easily lose my temper?” Am I faithful, or am I only a friend in the good times? Am I filled with joy and peace, or am I filled with uneasiness?
If I want a life filled with all of the good fruits that the scriptures tell me about, then I should spend time reading and studying my Bible, and take the time to memorize scripture. Talking to friends about what I’ve read, and letting the words become my thoughts, help to renew my mind. I like to worship God by singing songs, and as I pray, I keep in mind that Jesus is with me, listening. Stay in him and He will stay in you.
When I was young, I had a poster on my wall, in my room. Laying on my bunk bed, I looked at that poster many, many times. At the top, the poster read, “A Child Learns What He Lives.” Around the edges were cute little pastel colored kids, and in the middle, a list of things that children learn from parents actions. For some reason, even after the poster is gone, the message has always stayed with me.
As I went from a child to a teen, I went from having small problems to having very large problems, for myself and my parents. I feel very fortunate to have had parents that taught by example. There are some parents that go by the saying, “Do as I say, not as I do.” Then they wonder why their teens have all the bad habits that they have. Even though I was far from perfect as a teen, I saw my parents living a moral life, and that life, gave me the roots that I needed to get back on track after those teen years were over.
“Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” Proverbs 22:6. The poster that hung on my wall, when I was a child, said the same thing in different words. I have to thank God, for imprinting that message on my heart when I was young, and for giving me parents that not only taught morals, but lived what they were teaching.
I must have been about five years old, riding down the freeway, in the back of my parents old green rambler. One of the things I remember the most about these road trips, were all of the billboards. I was too young at the time to read them, but I remember using all the pictures and letters to make up stories, to pass the time as we drove. I have a distinct memory of riding down the freeway after I had been taught in school how to take all those ABC’s that had meant nothing to me, and put sounds to them, make words, and sentences. It seemed like all at once, I knew what all those billboards had been trying to say to me. I felt like a whole new world was opening up, and I was very excited. I didn’t have to make up stories, I had learned how to read. I remember it so clearly.
For me, reading billboards isn’t as exciting as it was when I was six or seven. But I had an experience that was similar in my late twenties. I was in the middle of a very hard time in my life, when I was touched in my heart by the Gospel. I made a decision to serve God, by inviting Jesus into my heart, and giving my life to Him. I was given a little red Bible, I put it in our van, and I began reading a little bit every day. I had read parts of the Bible before, but always came away feeling confused, this time it was different, I was starting to understand.
I grew up in the Catholic Church. I had also attended a Christian Church for a while in high school, and again in my early twenties, but I never quite believed, I just felt like it was something I was supposed to do.
One Sunday morning my husband and I were watching a Church service on TV, by this time I had read a large part of my New Testament in my little red Bible. But this was the first service I had seen since my early twenties. I started to cry. My husband, Mark, looked at me kind of funny, and asked, “Are you okay? Why are you crying?” I answered, “I finally understand, I’ve seen it all with my eyes before, but finally in my heart, I understand!”
A whole new world was opening up to me, and I was overwhelmed, I was excited!” Like those giant billboards that I passed so often when I was five, I saw them with my eyes and only pretended to understand. It wasn’t until I learned to read that I really understood what they were saying.
After receiving Jesus into my life, the Holy Spirit started teaching me my spiritual ABC’s and the things that I had seen before, but could only imagine the meaning, I was now beginning to understand.
1 Corinthians 2: 11- 14
11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God, except the spirit of God. 12 We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. 14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
I was sipping on a cup of tomato soup, fresh out of the can. Along with a few good memories of kindergarten, tomato soup and a grilled cheese, watching sheriff John after school (oops, I gave away my age), I noticed how salty this soup tasted. I thought about it for a minute and I decided that it has been a long time since I have enjoyed a can of tomato soup, and in that time, a lot has changed about my diet.
I used to eat a lot of salt, it got to the point where I was salting just about everything, and the food never even tasted salty, just flavorful. This salty, but tasty soup made me realize that along with giving up salt for my husband’s health, I was giving up a lot of flavor. I could taste the food but the food tasted flat and boring. Tonight I had some very tasty past memories and some very interesting soup, and it made me think of something that Jesus talked about and that is Christians, being like salt, that is, the salt of the earth.
Matthew 5:13, You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled on by men.”
You can eat food without salt, but it is salt that brings out the flavor in food. And you can live your life without being a Christian but if you really want a life that is full of flavor then you need to stay close to Jesus, and keep that saltiness.
God, please bless my children
Care for them as they grow
Fill them with your Spirit to
Teach them all you know
Lord, count each hair upon their heads
As they lay down at night
Cover them with loving wing
Until the morning light
Help me be a mother who is
Gentle and is kind
Help me give, help me love
Bring peace into my mind
Thank you for this family
I love them with all my heart
Watch over them when they are with me
Take care when we’re apart
Lord don’t let them stumble
Catch them if they fall
They are precious to me
They are my one and all
When I was young, I had a poster on my wall, in my room. Laying on my bunk bed, I looked at that poster many, many times. At the top, the poster read, “A Child Learns What He Lives.” Around the edges were cute little pastel colored kids, and in the middle, a list of things that children learn from parents actions. For some reason, even after the poster is gone, the message has always stayed with me.
As I went from a child to a teen, I went from having small problems to having very large problems, for myself and my parents. I feel very fortunate to have had parents that taught by example. There are some parents that go by the saying, “Do as I say, not as I do.” Then they wonder why their teens have all the bad habits that they have. Even though I was far from perfect as a teen, I saw my parents living a moral life, and that life, gave me the roots that I needed to get back on track after those teen years were over.
“Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” Proverbs 22:6. The poster that hung on my wall, when I was a child, said the same thing in different words. I have to thank God, for imprinting that message on my heart when I was young, and for giving me parents that not only taught morals, but lived what they were teaching.
During a mid week prayer meeting, at our Church, years ago, a member of the Church did something wonderful. There weren’t a whole lot of us, maybe fifteen in all, but everyone of us was in awe.
One after the other we filed into the Church, and up to the front. There, our pastor, Brad, had arranged all the chairs into a circle. We each took a seat, quietly talking to each other, waiting for the meeting to begin. Then in walked Selina, kind of a quiet woman. She was carrying a very large bowl of water and a towel was hanging from her arm.
Selina started to explain, “I had some bad feelings for some of the people in this Church.” she went on to say that she had a strong feeling that she should serve us. She stepped into the middle of the circle of chairs and knealed down in front of one of the men. She untied one of his shoes, took it off and put his foot in the water. Selina tenderly washed his feet.
My first thought was, “I just got done working a whole day in these shoes, no way am I letting her near these feet!” She dried the first mans feet with the towel that she had hanging over her arm, then went on to the next person.
Everyone in the circle sat silently watching Selina, not a word was spoken. As she got closer to me, I asked myself, “How can I get out of this?” But I didn’t move.
Next thing I knew, Selina was on her knees in front of me, untying my shoe, just as she did with each other person. Gently, she took off my shoe and placed my foot in the water. As she washed my foot, all the negative feelings and thoughts were washed away. This was the sweetest gesture I had ever seen. Selina had bad feelings, so instead of holding on to those feelings, she humbled herself enough to wash my feet. I started to cry. Then instead of my thoughts being focused on myself, they were focused on Jesus. I looked around and others were crying, or praying some heads down, some arms lifted. I felt God envelope that room like a thick fog.
After that evening, Selina was changed. Instead of being quiet and keeping to herself, she was open and friendly, and I grew to love her.
In Matthew 20: 26- 28, Jesus says, “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave- Just as the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
