I very seldom buy cake mixes, and I especially rarely read the box!  But the other day as I was trying to make the FB famous soda/cake mix low fat cake, I looked at the side when I picked the box up and was startled by this statement: “Thank you for welcoming us into your home.  We hope that what’s inside the box helps you bring more love to your table.  Cordially Yours, Betty Crocker”

Wow. Really? Buying a cake mix meant I was welcoming Betty Crocker and Co into my home?  How interesting!  And of course, I immediately saw a spiritual connection…a very serious one.  Although this is a very friendly “welcome”, I thought about what God might be saying to me through this.

I know we have all heard the statement that serial killers seldom look like evil, vicious people with a knife in their hands…they look very ordinary and calm.  And we all know those statements that say the enemy, satan, will not come at you with horns and an evil grin – he will usually be disguised as the very thing you want/need.  I have also heard repeatedly, usually from a pulpit, that what you watch on TV/the internet is also equivalent to welcoming that into your home, with all its consequences.

HOWEVER.  What if each of those ideas came with the entire statement that this box did??  Not just a warning that you’re welcoming ____ (fill in the blank) to your home, but the WHOLE story.  We hope (know) that what’s inside helps you bring more_____ to your _____.  As in, “welcoming pornography into your home, to help you destroy your family“.  Or what about “welcoming drugs and alcohol into your life to help you  ruin your body”.  Or this one, “welcoming that hobby into your life to help you never develop the prayer life you want”.  You can add so many other things to this list…..with so many different results.

I thought about the cake mix again, and it should truly have said “bring more fat, sugar and empty calories to your body!!  But humor aside, I really believe that God was showing me that in the busyness of my life, I have many times been guilty of rushing through decisions about my time, my health, and my spiritual walk by brushing aside His voice and saying, “I’ll deal with that next time, or later, or whatever” and never doing it.

The good news?  There is a positive flip side to this.  When I pick up my Bible to read, I can end that with “bring more knowledge and understanding to my life”.  Praying?  I can end with “bring more intimacy with my Father to my life”.  Buying that modest clothing? “Bring more honor and respect to my body, the temple of God”.  Listening to Christian music?  “Bring more encouragement and happiness to my day”.

So, I don’t believe I will ever look at a box of anything in the store the same way again.  And I hope that you and I will slow down, and look at what’s in our lives, our homes, our hearts, and our minds, and think about the ending to that statement….thank you for welcoming……..and do our best to make sure that ALWAYS has a positive, uplifting and honoring to God ending!  May He receive all the glory as we live our lives for Him!

When I was little, there was a sing we learned in church choir that went like this:  one door, and only one, and yet its sides are two..inside and outside, in which side are you?  I sang that with the firm conviction that I was on the right side, INSIDE the Kingdom of heaven with Jesus, and I felt sorry for everyone who wasn’t.

Fast forward about 45 years, and God brought that song back to me this past Sunday.  We were sitting in my Lifegroup (SS) and started sharing prayer requests.  A new member of our class, who us a brand new Christian, asked us to pray for her friend who had driven her to church.  He was elderly and on oxygen 24/7, and wanted to come with her, but wasn’t breathing good that day due to weather, and couldn’t come in.

Now, by “come in”, we thought she was saying he went back home and was going to pick her up later. What SHE meant, however, was entirely different!  He was actually out in the van, hoping that he could breathe enough to walk in for church!!  Really.  We absolutely could not believe it..and once the shock wore off, there was an immediate reaction.  Didn’t the church have a wheelchair? Yep!  Would he be willing to come inside with that? Oh, yes!  So I was dispatched to find the chair, two guys took it outside and rolled him in!  AND he was able to stay for church!

What a blessing we all almost missed out on!  At our church, in Moultrie, GA, there was actually someone who wanted to worship and was sitting JUST OUTSIDE the doors!  What an amazing thing for us..and what an amazing lesson.  If this woman had not spoken up, we would have never known it and HE would have never made it inside!

And God wasn’t through with me that day.  We rode the motorcycle to church that night, and took the longer way to enjoy a longer ride.  As we passed another local church on the way, there was a house not 20 feet from it, and a little boy sitting in the grass, playing with a truck, and he could have literally walked from his yard to the church without ever crossing the street.  God spoke to me AGAIN about being just outside the opportunity to worship/know Him!

My heart was broken at that moment about the “just outside” people!  How many do we miss every week?  Every day?  And are we doing anything about it??  After all, our friend that morning just needed a wheelchair and someone to push him…and that little boy just needed someone to walk to his yard and invite them!

As we drove on and got to church that night, I was so tickled to see the man from that morning WALK inside under his own power!  And he was there Wed night for Bible study..again on his own power.  All he needed…..was a little help!

So what about you?  Are there “just outside” people in your life?  Are you trying to help?  And are you daily looking for others?? I pray that we will all be able to answer that more frequently with a YES!  And may those “just outsiders” become “all the way insiders”!

I have been in church all my life, in  several churches with a lot of different worship styles, and I have seen a lot of weird and sometimes funny things happen in those services.  However Easter Sunday this year something truly remarkable happened, and the Lord has used the last two weeks to challenge me and grow me from it in ways I never knew about.

Our pastor is very down to earth in his preaching, straight from the Bible and with lots of insight and practical applications, which I love.  Many times during his sermons, he’ll stop and say, “does this make sense to you?” which is a wonderful way of seeing how clearly he is communicating, and also to refocus those who may have mentally drifted off.  And the usual response is a bumch of head nods and amens, and we continue on.

However!  Easter Sunday as he was giving a clear presentation of the Gospel, he asked that question and a deep voice from the back clearly said “not really!” What????  I looked at those around me, they looked at me, we all looked around, totally startled!  Did we really just hear that?  Someone said “not really”??  NOW what do we do?  I believe we were all stunned at what happened.

Now our pastor, because if previous knowledge of the person, continued with his sermon, and we went on as usual.  For me, however, the questions just kept pouring in, and I don’t think I ever really refocused on the sermon.  What did this man mean?  Did he nor understand a point?  Or was he not a Christian?  How could he NOT comprehend what I so clearly heard and understood??  And why wasn’t anyone addressing this?  Were we really going to not make sure he knew Jesus?? 

Later, after talking with our pastor, I learned of those extenuating circumstances.  But God has just been hammering my heart since then about how casual I am sometimes about people who don’t know Jesus!!  When they hear the Gospel at church, I just assume they are absorbing a lot of what I am, and they are blessed by being there.  What a mistake!  The Bible itself says “but the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit, for they are foolishness to him…” (I Corinthians 2:14).  And the same holds true when I share the Gospel or church things or stories..I have to remember that they don’t hear it the way I think they do!

So…what would have happened if this man was a first time visitor that no one knew?  Would we have stopped and gotten a godly man to take him aside and lead him to Jesus?  Would our pastor have stopped and addressed it from the pulpit?  And what about US?  Are we prepared to address the people that may answer back “not really!”?  Are would we just move on and pray they get it later?  May God help us to say NOT REALLY!  May our aim be to be more aware of our witness for HIS glory!!