Hello brothers and sisters, welcome into the peace and love of the Father. I am as always delighted that it was His will for you to wake up and have the grace to do another day. Please forgive my wondering mind, it has been hard to hold a thought these last few days and I don’t fully understand why. Keep me in your prayers as I go through this please. As I sit here, sipping my tea and staring down a pack of cigarettes, (yes, I know I should just not have them here but that is easier said than done. I am pondering just what will I do with this day the Lord has given me? Sometimes this can be a challenge all on its own. I have issues in my daily life that are less than perfect as we all do but why do my circumstances have to dictate my day? What does it matter what others are doing? What have I decided to do?

Failing is all a part of growing. Today is another day and we are going to be doing things a little differently. My husband has agreed to smoke outside so long as I don’t make him feel bad for going out to smoke. So I have agreed because I do indeed do that. So no more. Also I am going to be doing it fast. The idea is to just empty my body of all the things that might be causing me to want these habits. Break those chains and like the challenge says… die to self. With that idea, today is the day of salvation. So here is the plan, you guys up for this?

Water – As I said before, I don’t like water. I just need prayer to love this stuff.

Veggies – This is the same. I don’t like plain ol veggies. I love to cook and I love flavor and how it all blends together… pray for me!

Fruit – Everyone loves fruit. Well most everyone. I am good with fruit so this one is not so hard. However affording it is another matter. It just keeps going up in price as the days go by and I don’t imagine that is going to get better.

Tea – Black tea I found out, is very heart healthy, which explains the sudden love for it.

No more, no less. This is going to be for 4 days at least and up to 21 days if possible. I really want to clean out this temple and I can’t think of any other way to do this. I am also going to cut out all extra learning unless it has to do with Jesus but it will be focused on Red Letters. Everything in scripture is good for teaching and bringing people to the knowledge of the truth but we are to follow Jesus. I wanted to do this sooner but I didn’t. Procrastination is going to be the death of many… mostly me.

I know what you must be thinking… um, my circumstances are the truth. I argue that they are not. This world and everything in it, as beautiful and wonderful as the Father made it all, are but vapor, dust in the wind. It all will pass away. In the end it will not matter who made fun of the clothes we wore or the way our hair looked. We will not be worried that the neighbor thought our yard was a mess. We will not be saying things like; My house was the best, I drove the nicest car, I had the purest body, I dressed like the most modest person… and whatever else ones mind can come up with. All that matters is; Do you believe Jesus was the son of God and that He came to die once for all and do you trust Him?

I think of Martha and Mary when Jesus and the disciples came to stay at their home. Martha was running around worried about a great many things and Mary was doing what was more important. Both were needed but one was of even greater need. I am Martha. I used to worry about a great many things and then the Father woke me up and I went in the complete opposite direction and I quit caring about a great many things. Unless it had to do with Jesus or learning about Him I didn’t want to know it. Now I am not blaming Jesus in any way. I am simply saying that I lacked balance.

Our whole life is a form of worship. Every move my body makes can be a testimony for the greatness of God. I used to have all the outward signs of life within. Clean house, clean person, sweet and loving, kind and understanding but it was not always in my heart. This is what Jesus looks at.

Jesus taught His disciples all the time. He never wasted a moment given to him. As I was reading and getting ready to write this out I found it interesting the order in which Jesus gave this lengthy lesson. In Matthew 24 the twelve came to Him privately and asked what was the sign of His coming and the end of the world? Jesus answered first by telling them a list of things that would come to pass before He would return. In verse 42 He says to watch and be ready. Then He goes into parables about the ten virgins, all of which were asleep, then into the parable of the talents.

From there, He goes straight into the sheep and goat judgement. He gives a list of things that we will be judged on. None of which include any outward appearances or amount of wealth we had. In fact He is judging us on how much we gave to others in one form or another.

Matthew 25:34-40
Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

So, you had enough money to build a big home or church and it is beautiful! Did you build it before or after you made sure that all your brothers and sisters in your church were doing well and could eat and pay their bills? Did you help your neighbor or condemn him because his stuff was not as nice as your stuff? Do you boast about all the wonderful extras you have while the widow or the orphan right down the street is going without? I am guilty of this as well but we don’t have to continue in a bad habit. We, through Christ can do better then the world.

I often marvel at the world vs. the church at times. In the world we have satanists and secret organizations that get along better together than we do. They are more charitable than we are and they care deeply about what they believe. Then you have the Church and we are horrible to one another and I don’t understand. We don’t stand firm on our beliefs and we treat sinners like crud, like we are better than they are. We forget all of us are nothing without Jesus. Period.

Each one of us has our own set of issues and I have no way of knowing what you are dealing with but I do know that the Father is not impressed by what we have, it all belongs to Him. It like the kid bragging because he has a certain thing. He boasts nothing because he did not get anything himself, his father did. This is the same with the Lord.

Here we go again with the humbling…SO…we all remember the cats right, how they so lovingly coated my room in Ode de Tom Cat? I was the stinky family in the store… This gave me pause after I was finished being embarrassed and angry… How many times have I judged someone on the outside and not on their behavior? I had a bad life event… yes, it’s a bad life event but that is not who I am. I have been judged as a bad person for many reasons and most of the time it has nothing to do with who I am as a person but rather by the things I had or didn’t have, how I looked or smelled verses what is truly important.