Author: tilson123

Hope Available Here!

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DSCN0526DSCN0527I was inspired today to do a (little) spring cleaning, and our screened in back porch this time of year is always a sorry mess.  Pollen has literally invaded every inch of it, including the white (now yellow) cat!

We also have patio furniture out there underneath all that, and the table has an opaque glass top.  I can’t wait every year to tackle it when the visible pollen is finally through, because it is really sad when you can’t even see through the glass!  Before I cleaned it, however, I had a thought, and turned on the porch light to take a picture (picture on left).  You can barely see the light reflecting in it.  Then after washing it thoroughly, I took the same picture – and look at the results (picture on right)!  Amazing, isn’t it?

God used this to remind me, with Easter coming tomorrow, about what a difference He has made in my life.  We are all made in the image of God, and are designed to bring Him glory and honor.  And we are also created to reflect HIS image in our lives, and not our own!  You can see, however, that when sin (the dirt and pollen) collect and are not attended to, His light cannot hardly shine through us.  All the world can see (as in me looking at this table before) is dirt and ugly and annoyance that something designed to be beautiful, designed to reflect, is not doing it!

Put another way, if I had company and invited them to eat on the table on the right, I would be embarrassed and they would be totally turned off.  And who could blame them?  But I sometimes don’t have any trouble living in this world, or inviting others to my church, or sharing the gospel with the unsaved….and I SHOULD be embarrassed by the sinI have been harboring or the way I have been living…and they are always turned off!

So, as we celebrate Easter tomorrow, and the gift of salvation that Jesus made possible for us on the cross, lets also analyze which table top we represent – and ask God to make all things new by repenting and allow Him to wash us clean again!

I Have a BIG God!

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I grew up in the “golden age” of Biblical movies, back when Hollywood would bring the Bible to the big screen in a mostly accurate way with at least some reverence for the subject material.

Having said that, I tried to watch “Exodus: Gods and Kings” with my hubby last night.  I really did try.  But halfway through we turned it off…not because we were offended necessarily, but because of the inaccuracies and the sad treatment of my “and yet!” God.

I am NOT writing to bash this movie, because I know that those who aren’t Christians cannot correctly interpret what they do not know or believe.  I am, however, writing because of the way that God was portrayed.  When Moses first encounters God, and then in another scene, God is portrayed as a little boy.  No booming voice, no mystery, no awe, just a simple ordinary human, and a child at that.  Which shows just how far our world’s opinion of God has fallen.  No longer is He shown as an all powerful, big, bold God.  He has been made to look like what the world can accept – a small, ineffective person who can waver in his opinions and doesn’t have a lot of power.

Of course God did not let me stop there.  Hollywood is not the only place where God is made small.  I know many honest, sincere people in church – many of whom have trusted the Lord for their salvation – who worship a small God.  They know He is able to remove their sin and get them into heaven….but it pretty much stops there.  They don’t see Him as a personal, intimate God, who cares about every aspect of their lives.  Or who has a plan for their lives, who wants good things for them, and who wants to have fellowship with them on a daily basis.  They come and worship Him on Sundays, but they don’t seek Him out during the rest of their daily lives.

There are also many people in churches today who have a small God.  They are the ones who look like Christians, know all the right words, and can quote the Bible back and front.  But in their hearts, they don’t believe.  They can live in sin – of all kinds – and think that God really doesn’t care, or can’t really do anything about it.  They don’t recognize His holiness, or His power to judge – or even that He has a right to.

None of these images of our holy, risen Savior God is accurate!  As we celebrate Easter this Sunday, maybe we just all need to look inside, and examine ourselves, and see if WE are worshipping our great BIG God!  To Him be ALL the glory!

Celebrating Fire Ants

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theme_01-nodate[1]This time of year in deep south Georgia, there is a festival of some sort every weekend.  Peaches, peacocks, peanuts – you name it, we’ve got a festival!  Because I am from the big city (Atlanta) the first spring we were here was a constant surprise of the things people will celebrate.  As you can see from the photo there is a great event, complete with a “fire ant queen” beauty pageant.

Fire ants are remarkable.  I didn’t truly appreciate them until we lived in this part of the country.  They are aggravating, mulitply more than rabbits, and can make a grown man weep when he encounters a mound of them unexpectedly.  They are sneaky because they begin their colonies underground, and once the hill appears, they can be MILES deep. We know from science that they are incredibly powerful and smart.  They can move things many, many times their weight, and their colonies rival the best architecture in the world.  And they are practically indestructible! We spent major $$ one spring spraying our yard with the “strongest” pesticide, and they were laughing at us two days later. I found this out too when we had minor flooding one year – I watched as entire colonies, totally undisturbed, FLOATED down small streams, without one death among them! There is one “cure” for them, but it requires a licensed exterminator to come apply the treatment.  Even at that, the ants are not destroyed – they simply go to live in your neighbor’s untreated lawn!

Does that sound vaguely familiar to you?  I believe it SO accurately represents sin in the Christian’s life.  It begins small – ant size.  We don’t always recognize it, because it can hide so cleverly among all the other things in our lives.  And like the ant hill, when we do come to terms with it, it can be miles deep in our hearts.  It WILL aggravate, it will multiply, and it WILL cause even the strongest among us to weep. It can appear indestructbile.

AND YET!  This week we celebrate the ONE who not only addresses sin in our lives, He lived and died to completely conquer it!  Unlike the exterminator who can only “chase off” the ants, Jesus Christ’s death on the cross PERMANENTLY killed sin!  In the born again believer’s life, His blood has the power to not only remove previous “colonies” of sin, it can prevent future ones.  THAT is a fact worth celebrating this Easter, and every other day!  To God be the glory!

Beautifully Simple

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unnamed[1] (23) - CopyThe dogwood has always been a favorite of mine.  I love its pure white, and the elegance of its blossom.  At a time when all the colors of spring are out, it looks even more white than it would otherwise.  And of course there is also the legend of the dogwood tree being the tree that the cross of Jesus was made from.

I had an experience today with a customer that was equally simple and beautiful.  Early this morning an older man came into the store, and before I could greet him, he took a note out of his shirt pocket and handed it to me.  Now, in my previous employment (banking), that would never be a good sign!  But at Chick Fil A, I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.  I read the note, and was amazed.  It said:  Chicken biscuit.  To go.  Senior Coffee.  Thank you.

I looked up at him, and he was pointing to his ear, and shaking his head, and smiling.  In other words, he was deaf.  And because of that deafness, apparently he had never learned to talk. So he had a note. A small, handwritten, crumpled note that indicated he had used this before. I was so blessed by both the simplicity, and the humble attitude he had.  I would gladly have let him order everything on the menu and carried it out to his car.

God used this today to remind me that we can approach Him the same way.  We don’t have to use fancy words, or churchy expressions, or “thee” and “thou”.  We don’t have to come to Him with reasons for what we want/need, or anything else.  We can just simply ask for what we need, and remember to say thank you when we’re done.  After all, that’s what happened when Jesus met a leper (Matthew 8:1-3) and when a ruler approached him about raising his daughter from the dead (Matthew 9:18 & following).  They made their requests simple and from the heart, and Jesus had compassion on both of them.  Of course, God is not bound to honor every request we make, He has His will for each of us.  But He will ALWAYS listen, and we can ALWAYS ask…and He will NEVER judge us by words we use when we do.  To God be the Glory!

Fighting Inflammation

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Although I absolutely love being back at Chick Fil A, my knees, legs, and feet are NOT having a good time….at all!!  I have developed osteo-arthritis, and I have a bone spur underneath my right knee.  Which was not a big deal, really, when I sat all day in front of a computer.

Now, however, I am in constant search of advil, aleve, tylenol, you get the picture!  4 hour days are not easy, but they are doable.  The longer shifts are still a constant fight between my knees and my stomach – as in, I can only take so many Nsaids before trouble begins.  So, I have a counter full of other remedies…epson salt, epson salt/lavender/camomille bath stuff, Blue Emu (yes, really) pain relief gel, etc.  I have tried three different knee braces, and not one of them fits my currently chubby upper thighs!  Believe me when I say “one size fits all!”  and “adjustable to any size!” are empty promises.  And I have two pair of heavyduty comfort wear shoes.  I’d say I have spent at least $150 trying to make working there not just possible, but relatively painfree.

Yesterday, however, I was reading an article about arthritis and inflammation, hoping for some new enlightenment.  And, DUH! I have spent all my time and efforts on curing the symptoms of my disease…and haven’t been paying attention to eliminating a lot of the cause of the disease.  And other than the weight issue that I wrote about the other day, there is the issue of inflammation. Caused by diet, in great part.  As in, I can help my own cause.  Which, I admit, I already knew some of, but was not willing to want to “remember”.  There are foods that I can avoid, and of course foods that I can add, to counteract the inflammation in my own body.  So I am studying, and working out a plan.  Some will be easy (adding fish oil) and some will not (adding walnuts, minus the brownies I usually put them in)!  But actually doing will be MUCH more effective than treating the symptoms!

And of course, God is using this to teach me something!  Inflammation happens in my spiritual walk, and in my daily life too.  There have been times that I have found myself miserable, frustrated, worried, or upset.  I can look back to those and realize that I had allowed “inflammation” into my life – gossip, bitterness, anger, sin, pride, and other hurtful things.  I have been in places where my spirit was damaged, not lifted up.  I have participated in activities that caused my heart to be in more pain than my knees ever thought about!  I have listened to the world, and allowed its influence to inflame my environment and keep my eyes off Jesus.  And I also have a shelf full of rememdies – like my bath stuff – that only addressed the symptoms.

The answer?  While I am overhauling my diet, I am going to be overhauling my environment!  I want to be inflammation free, and I believe God will help..anyone want to join me?

How Do You Play?

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I am not a March Madness kinda girl.  I like baseball, am PASSIONATE about college (only) football, but there is no need in my life for basketball.  Sorry, but it’s true.

However, this morning as I was getting ready for church, a coach was being interviewed after his team won a very close game..down to the wire close.  He was asked what particular strategy his team had used for this game that might have helped them win.  His respnse was this: “we don’t go out and play with the attitude of how can we keep from losing.  We go out with the attitude of how can we WIN”.

How refreshing it would be if we were to use the same strategy in our spiritual lives!  Too oftem today I meet-and occasionally am one-Christians who live and work as if the war has slready been lost.  We say things like abortion will never be repealed, people will never quit living together/drinking/using drugs (or any other thing) and we need to hold on to what little we have left and just pray for God to come soon.

Really?  Does that sound like people of an “and yet!” God?  No!  That same coach went on to say that his team goes out with the expectation that they WILL win and they plan from there.

Well ok..it works for them!  But how much more confident would they be if they KNEW they were going to win?  They would play with no fear, no stress, and no hesitation.

As we prepare for this week, Holy Week that leads up to Easter, I am asking God to remind me every day what this werk means-that God WON!  I dont have to approach my life or my ministry with the “playing not to lose” attitude! I have the complete assurance because of Jesus that I can have a “I can win”attitude..because HE did!  So if you are a born again believer, trusting in the cross for your salvation, join me in approaching this week with a winning attitude. I believe that is the best way to honor the sacrifice HE made!

Diorama Living

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DSCN0498Robert, my hubby, retired back in October and has ben able to resume his favorite hobby, model car building.  It is therapy, relaxation and fun all wrapped into one, and he is very good at it.  This last model he bought a different case for it, one that included diorama pieces to go inside the model case with the car.

Dioramas are defined as “a model representing a scene with 3 dimensional figures, often in miniature”.  Sad to say in my childhood years and school projects, they very seldom represented an actual scene very well!  But in this model, there are extremely realistic pieces made of plastic that Robert glued to cardboard, etc and the resulting scene is amazing.  It looks completely real.

Just like this model, there are days that my spiritual life feels like a diorama.  I am in my usual places, doing my usual stuff, and saying all the right words.  I read my Bible and pray, smile at people, and go through my day looking totally normal.  Only I know the truth – that there’s very little “real” going on.  And I am not alone.  I see people every day who say they are ok but they aren’t.  I wait on customers who smile at their wildly energetic children, and yet their eyes say “i am SO tired of dealing with all this”.  I know of other people who look like the perfect couple, and their life is full of distrust and lost love.

There are times that we must do that in order to keep jobs and/or not be arrested for acting out on those feelings! Unfortunately, we have taken that habit of “hiding” into every part of our lives.  It can be very risky to be more real, less plastic.

AND YET!  God has called His people to be genuine, authentic examples of what life with Him is all about. We can’t do that if we pretend that we have everything under control and are always doing great.  So next time you feel the need to say “fine” when asked how you are doing, remember this picture.  And remember that people who really know you or see you every day will know when the “diorama” is on display!

Lose the Weight, Already!

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I am loving my new (old) job at Chick Fil A.  It has proven to be a lot of hard work, but a lot of fun as well.  It has also allowed me to reconnect with old friends, and make new ones.

HOWEVER.  I am almost 5 years older than when I last worked there, and about 10 pounds heavier.  Sigh.  I don’t mind being the next-to-oldest employee they have…most of my coworkers could be my children.  But my knees mind terribly!  The days I have a 3 or 3 1/2 hour schedule, everything is great.  But there are 2 days a week when I work either 7 or 8 hours.  And Chick just replaced the rubber floor (which is not as hard on feet) with a standard tile.  And like today, I come home walking funny and soaking my feet immediately after getting home…not to mention the Tylenol and Advil I take to stay at work.

Which brought to mind something I had read, and it basically says for every one pound you lose, it’s like taking 4 pounds of pressure off your knees.  That same study says that if you lose 10 pounds, you are reducing the pressure on your knees by 48,000 pounds for every mile walked!  That extra weight also causes an early breakdown in your cartilege because of the extra pressure.

Like many things, this principle also applies spiritually.  There are many people I know – myself included – who still carry excess emotional/spiritual weight that hinders us in our journey with the Lord through this world.  My knee pain causes me to limp and walk like a 90 year old when I get off work, and it slows me down while I am there.  It takes me a good hour after work to recoup and be ready to do something else.  The regrets and baggage of the past do the same to our spiritual walk.  That extra weight keeps us “limping” through life, not enjoying the walk, and not accomplishing all that we could because we are slowed down by carrying it.  It also can tear down our future ability to be effective by breaking us down.

So, in addition to a renewed commitment to lose weight, which you may not need to do, I am also making a renewed commitment to lighten my spiritual load, by dumping some major past issues, and looking ahead to what God still wants to do with me.  As Paul said in Philippians 3:13-14 “….but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead…”  Anyone want to join me?

No is Only a New Yes!

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Ok, yesterday I got the verdict from my unemployment hearing, and the answer was no…as in nope, you deserved to be fired, and you were, and we owe you no money.  That’s not actually what the letter said – it was all official and said I was disqualified…which is still a not so nice way of saying no!

My initial reaction was the above, along with the thought that my previous employer’s human resource department was sitting around celebrating.  It would also have been very nice to receive 4 weeks of unemployment, and it would have taken away the “sting” of giving 3 1/2 years to them with such an abrupt and untimely dismissal.

AND YET!  That no really means that I am done with my former employer, once and for all, and will now just see them in the rear view mirror of my life, fading away.  Yay!  Also I know that in spite of all the stress and pressure of that job, I would never have walked away from them, because of the salary and benefits that I thought I could not live without.  The job was killing me, but I was making huge money and couldn’t see past that – I thought I had to make that sacrifice.  God knew that, and so He forced me to leave!

AND YET!  For every no, there have been at least two “yes’s”.  Yes to having another job, parttime.  Yes to less blood pressure medicine.  Yes to more time to write.  Yes to a happy work environment, where I can directly impact people.  Yes to watching Him meet every financial need that I have.  Yes to a uniform that keeps me from the constant struggle of having enough work-worthy clothes.  Yes to more time for ministry.  Yes to having a testimony to share of God saying no to me, and thriving in spite of it!

So, if you are in the land of “no”…the place where it seems there will never be another yes…or the place where it seems like the whole world is against you, and you’re not sure about God…relax!  The Scripture is full of promises that God has made to His children, that He intends to keep!  Start looking out for those “yes’s”, and the “no’s” will fade away!  I am living proof of that!

Positive Air

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My hubby has a wonderfully wacky sense of humor, as this photo shows!  A few years ago I had to start using CPAP at night 100_1061because I was snoring “loud enough to wake the neigbors!” and I was basically spending my nights trying to breathe, instead of sleeping.  This is also known as sleep apnea, and it can lead to being forced to sleep in a separate bedroom from your hubby, and oh yeah, a shortened life.

For you who don’t know, CPAP actually stands for Continuous Positive Air Pressure,and the process basically ensures that you have a continual airflow all night, keeping you from snoring (the non-medical explanation).  And of course since Robert thought I looked hilarious with it on, he wanted to make sure my stuffed animals did not feel left out!  He left this for me to find one day after he left for work, and it very much made my day.

So I began to think about what would happen if we all had CPAP.  No, not the machine….but continual positive “air” around us. It is a scientifically proven fact that children thrive in a positive atmosphere, and the best teachers try to make that happen.  But in today’s world, it is very hard to hear as adults about the positive. As a matter of fact, we have even taken that very word and made it negative – as in, “I’m positive that won’t work out”!

Science has also proven that being positive brings great health benefits to the person practicing it.  And in my particular job, it is “commanded” that I be positive to my customers and to my co-workers…it is just simply expected.  That doesn’t mean I live in denial of those customers that may try my patience and all my goodwill..that’s just not going to happen sometimes after the third “oh wait I also need….” as I retype their order again.

However, overriding all this is that the Bible has a lot to say about being positive in a negative world.  Proverbs 15:13 says, “A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance”, and Proverbs 16:24 also says that pleasant words are sweet to the soul (paraphrase mine).  So, let’s practice some CPAP in our worlds – and when it’s tough to do, remember I Corinthians 5:57 “Thanks be to God who gives us the victory…!”