PURPLE MAGIC

God's Grace is Sure

2011-02-06T22:09:00.000-08:00

Living Daily With Christ

2011-01-30T21:41:00.000-08:00

What Is Going On Inside Our Church?

2011-01-04T17:38:00.000-08:00

I have noticed that church is not what it used to be. We don't see that excitement and joy as we worship with songs and music. There are not as many Amens during the message by our pastors. No one would be seen getting a little happy during a service. Our churches are not as eager to reach people anymore. I wonder what people outside the church know about what goes on inside our churches? We have come to place the church inside the four walls of the structure that we come to weekly and not really let the church be what it ought to be.

Our churches should be a place where people from all walks of life can come and receive the gospel and know that the church cares about them and is willing to go that extra mile to help them. We should be christians and not just say that we are. What does our lives say that we are christians or wannabes? That can only be answered by you. We are all responsible for our own lives, but we as christians are responsible for the lives of others that are not christians. There will come a time and it is called the Great White Throne Judgement when all God's people will be judged for our actions and the way we lived our lives here on this earth.

The Bible tells us that when we do something for someone else, we have done it unto him. How much have we done for others. I don't mean Christmas presents and parties. I mean to go out of your way to help someone that maybe did not have a Christmas. Maybe it is someone at work that is having a hard time in their marriage or is dealing with being a single parent or caring for elderly parents. You have no idea what people are going through unless you open your eyes and ears to what is going on around you and what others are showing you each day.

We are so wrapped up in our own lives that we cannot see any further than the end of our noses and a lot of times it is turned up. How many of us even talk about our churches outside the church? Are we afraid of what people will think of us? Is church that boring that it is not even noteworthy to talk about? We need to be excited about our churches and be excited about being able to help others and be excited about telling others about Jesus. We are christians and we are going to heaven when this world is over. That should put an extra jump in our step and a song in our hearts and make us want to share with everyone about Jesus and what he has done for usl

Maybe if we would tell others about our churches and what actually goes on and that they are very welcomed to be there, they might come and get a little excited as well. There is nothing wrong with smiling and singing and being happy. Some may think you are a little crazy, but my answer is that I am crazy about Jesus and I want them to know it.

Jesus, The Real Gift

2010-12-24T09:14:00.000-08:00

Christmas is full of hustle and bustle with all the preparations for family meals, Christmas parties, church activities such as programs, cantatas and office parties, outings with friends, Santa for the children, decorating our homes, lights outside, the list goes on and on. We have made Christmas into such a commercial and social event that we have really forgotten the most important part of Christmas.

We must get back to that very first Christmas when our Savior Jesus Chrsit was born. It was a cold night and Mary was about to give birth to her son and she had ridden a donkey all day and was very tired. Jacob had walked all day guiding the donkey carefully so that Mary would be as comfortable as possible. When they arrived in Bethlehem there was no where for them to stay except in a barn with animals. Now mind you the child she was carrying was Jesus Christ the Son of God.

That night she gave birth and wrapped him in cloths and laid him in the manger, or feeding trough to sleep. There was no large family gathering, no gifts, no carols, no decorations, no toys, just Mary and Joseph and the animals in attenance. Jesus should have been born in a palace with all the attendants to care for him. I can only imagine what was going through Mary's mind after her birth experience. She knew that Jesus was the son of God, but I can imagine that all of this was very confusing to her. Can we imagine that when she held him close and kissed his cheek that she was actually holding and kissing the Son of God. That sends cold chills down my spine to think about that.

This gift was and still is the most wonderful, perfect gift that has ever been given. Jesus was the one who died for our sins on the cross so that we could have eternal life with God in heaven. When I think about Jesus and his life here on this earth, it was short, simple , but oh so amazing and fullfilling. He spent his life giving to others of himself and God. He never turned anyone away or had a harsh word for anyone. He gave totally of himself to all. He did this in the end by dying on that cruel cross for our sins. Jesus had done nothing wrong. He lived a perfect life here on this earth, but was treated alike a very horrible criminal. When Jesus died he had no more belongings than what he had when he was born.

When we look at Jesus' mother and father and him we see that each of them had a choice in this matter. They could have each said no and God would have followed through with their wishes. They did not. Mary and Joseph had faith in God that he was directing them in his will. Jesus knew that he had to be the sacrificial lamb for all of us who were sinners to go to heaven. When I think how our story could have been, it makes me so thankful for Jesus and his life and death.

We as believers should be constantly in tune with those around us and taking every opportunity to share the gospel of Jesus christ with all that we come in contact with, because we never know when there is someone standing right beside us that does not know Jesus and we may be the very one that either helps or hinders their gift of knowing Jesus as their Savior. Quite a sobbering thought when you think about it.

I urge each one of you as Christians to spend time with someone that does not know Jesus this season and help them to understand and accept this most wonderful gift of Salvation. I promise you that your heart will never be the same and you will have helped someone else to come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

May God Richly Bless you and keep you this season.

Indoor Christians

2010-08-24T07:52:00.000-07:00

Our lives on this earth as we know them could be very short indeed. Our country is such a combination of nationalities and beliefs that it makes it hard for some of us to understand just what our country is all about. When I was in school and studied history we were told that our country was built on christian principals. We believed in God and we stood for what the Bible taught. We were proud to let it be known that we were a Christian nation. Today as I spend time here and watch people in our nation killing each other for no reason, women aborting babies that are just as alive as the rest of us and who knows could be the one person that could bring about the cure for some of our most horrible diseases, see groups of young people in gangs that have absolutely no morals or thought for the lives they take each day, I ask myself, "Where are all the Christians?" Our government has strayed so far away from our beginnings that our nation doesn't even resemble the nation it started out to be. We care only for ourselves and what we can obtain, the glory we can have for ourselves, yet there are thousands of people in this nation that are homeless and out of work and have no future at all. There was a time when we could go out of our homes at any time of day or night and leave our doors unlocked and not have to worry that our belongings would be there. Now we have all these expensive security systems in place and still our homes are not safe. I remember the day when you did not have to fear for your life if you picked up a hitch hicker and took him a little farther down the road and maybe even bought him a meal. He would be gracious and say a harty "Thank You," and be on his way. I remember a time when our preachers could proudly stand in their pulpits and preach the whole Bible and not fear what might happen to them for doing so.

There are now people that have now been successful in taking prayer out of our schools, put legislation into place that makes abortion legal and a decision that is made by man instead of God, who by the way created us, removed the Ten Commandments from public places and have now even made money that does not even have the words "In God We Trust," on it. I ask you, "Where Are All The Christians Now?" As I live my life and make attempts at trying to help someone come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, I am told by some people that they are not interested in that right now. I am told that they are good people and they will go to heaven. Some have even said that they don't care. There was one young man that I worked with several years ago that even made the proclamation that when he died he was going to hell and that he would rule hell. He boasted about this as though this would be his grandest accomplishment. I ask, "Where Are All The Christians?"

I don't know about the rest of this country, but this scares me to death. God has given us so much and blessed this nation with so much and yet we have so little regard for our nation and the path that it is taking. We have elected a president that has no regard for Christian beliefs, as well as a lot of our legislators who feel the same way. I look around at the family structure to- day and see that it is very poorly put together. I see children living between divorced parents, not having any idea if they are truly loved or just tolerated, parents who have absolutely no morals spending their time with first one and then another person trying to find happiness and belonging. I see mothers who can't cope with raising their children so they just kill them instead of trying to take care of them and love them. The age of mothers is astounding. A lot of mothers are just children themselves trying to live adult lives. In times of death, I see children arguing over their loved one as they lay dying trying to decide who will get what when they pass instead of spending this time saying goodbye to their loved one. I see the legislation that has made same sex marriages allowed. Again, "Where Are All The Christians?"

Our regard for life has truly diminished. The sad thing is life is such a precious commodity. It is given by God. He is the one who breathes that first breath that we take at birth. God is the one who made us so perfectly inside the womb of our mothers. God is the one who gave His only son for our redemption that we could have everlasting life when we pass from this earth. God is there 24/7 to be our friend, our comforter, our rock, our shelter, the one that we don't even have to make an appointment with when we need to unload our problems. God is the father that no earthly father could ever be to us. He loves us when we don't even love ourselves.

I simply can't understand why this is such a hard concept for people to understand and why there are not more Christians in this world today. Again, I ask, "Where Are All The Christians?" I can tell you the answer to this question without even hesitating. The Christians of this world are inside their churches singing, having meetings, planning events, having fellowships, listening to preachers who preach a Feel Good sermon and are not out in this world living their faith where anyone else can see it. Christians today are "Indoor Christians."

I call out to each of you to come out of your little cocoon and be what God intended you to be. He wants you to be someone who stands for what you believe and make it known that you want our nation to stand tall as a Christian nation and that we are a nation that is Bible based and that we will conduct the business of this country in a Christian manner. This means that the Indoor Christian will have to become an Outdoor Christian. I can promise you that if you tell someone about Jesus Christ, you might just be surprised at what God will do with your willingness to serve Him and make the gospel known again in this nation. This is the only way that we will take our nation back and make her the strong God fearing nation that she once was and let people know and feel the love of God in their hearts. I feel that if we do this, our crime rate would go down, abortions would cease, gay marriages would stop, infidelity would stop, our children would grow up learning the Godly way to live their lives and unplanned pregnancies would greatly diminish, our family units would become strong and Godly once again, our country would be managed with Godly principals, the world would know us as a nation to be revered and not laughed at anymore.

I am so looking forward to the day when I can be in Heaven with my Heavenly Father and know that He loved me enough through the gift of is Son Jesus Christ to give me a place in His kingdom forever and ever. I don't want to live my life so that I can rule hell as this one young man boasted. I am so thankful that I was raised by 2 very loving, christian parents and that they taught me how to live a Godly life. My life has not always been what God would have, but I know that I have the assurance of a place in Heaven and that until that day I must be about My Father's business which is spreading the gospel to the ends of the earth as it is stated in Matthew 28:19-20. Christians of this country and this world, we have a job to do. We are instructed by God to be out in the highways and byways of this world sharing the gospel to every person in this world until Jesus comes for us and takes us home.

Indoor Christian, COME OUT AND LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE FOR HIM AND BE ABOUT THE BUSINESS OF SPREADING THE GOSPEL TO THE WORLD !!!

The Real Gift

2009-09-14T21:16:00.000-07:00

As I stood in front of our booth at the Morgnton Festival on Saturday I saw a number of different people from all walks of life. Some were happy. Some were sad. Still others were dressed in many different types of clothes and hair styles. Children of all ages gazing at all the sites to be seen as they were walking down the streets with their eyes looking in all directions. As I spoke to the people passing our way, some were amazed that I would speak while others were very cordial. There were those that just looked at me and kept walking. We were giving away horse shoes with people's names hammered on the hores shoe. People were amazed that we would do this for free. They did not understand that we had an even greater gift to give them if they would ask for it. As the day went on, I would use the horse shoe to start a conversation about this wonderful free gift that I was so wanting to give each and everyone that came our way. This gift is something we all need in order to get our rewards when we die. This gift is Jesus our Savior. He died on the cross for our sins so that we could have eternal life in Heaven. This gift is totally free. All we have to do is to admit we are sinners and ask for forgiveness and believe that Jesus is God's son and that he died for our sins and rose the third day. The only thing left is to ask Jesus to come and live in our hearts and that my friend is the best gift in the world. You will never be happier than at that moment when Jesus comes into your heart. This was our real gift to these people. The horse shoe was extra. John 3:16 explaines this gift completely. On the horse shoe this verse was stamped on the ends. The person's name is in the center of the horse shoe, right in the center of God's amazing love for us. The Real Gift straight from God's heart to our heart. There were 33 that received that gift that day. AMEN!!!

For That Fearless Hero

2009-09-04T18:00:00.001-07:00

There are times in life when no matter what we have done and no matter how much we have poured into a job, there is going to be someone that will either not like what we have done or just be completely jealous of the things we have accomplished. These are times that we want to either just lash out at these people or just simply take our stripes and hope that our lives will come together again. This can be one of the loneliest times in our lives. It seems that we are the only one in the world that has done something terribly wrong and everyone is out to get us and take a piece of us as they do.

It is a good thing to be able to call on family, but even that does not heal all the wounds. You know in your heart that you did the best that you could under the circumstances and acted in the best interest of all involved, but there is still that one who wants so badly to make us look bad and tear down all the good that we have done. They just simply cannot stand to see us rise above the rest of the group, even though we have earned it.

Jealousy is one of the most terrifying and destructive enemies in our society. It lurks around every corner and is patiently waiting for that time that it can jump out and attack us and tear us to shreds and then just go about its business like nothing ever happened.

When the dust settles, you'll find jealousy sitting there smiling and taking all the bows, while we just sit there and wonder if it is really over and life can begin to go back to normal again. Still this does not even begin to make any of it feel better or even make sense to us.

This would seem to be a time that we could feel sorry for ourselves and wonder "Why me?" Bad times are events that we can use to grow and to better ourselves if we keep our eyes on Jesus and don't let our enemy win the battle. They may win the earthly battle, but not the spiritual battle. God knows what has taken place and He will direct our paths on to something even bigger and better if we but keep our eyes on him and trust him. Matthew 6:33-34 says, "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself." KEEP THE FAITH!!!

Tea Pot or Tea Cup

2009-08-26T12:16:00.001-07:00

A tea pot is a beautiful vessel that holds a very aromatic, steaming, hot, vibrant tea. This tea has been brewed to perfection. The tea pot contents are then poured into the tea cup which holds the tea. The tea cup is then given to your guest to enjoy and savor the flavor. It is your gift to them for their friendship. You may even offer a cookie or a pastry for them to enjoy with their tea. All these acts are given for a dear friend, one in whom you care very much. Let's say that your friend was very complimentary of your tea and cookies, but did not eat them. The tea sat there in the cup and got cold and lost its wonderful flavor. The cookies became stale and lost their crunch. Would they be good to eat at this point or would they have any value at this point? No. the only thing to do would be to throw the cookies in the trash and pour out the tea in the sink and wash the cup.

With this said, let me make a simple analogy of this event. God pours down rich blessings each and every day to each one of us and fills our hearts with His love and mercy. It is what we do with these blessings that decides whether we are a tea pot or a tea cup. If we in turn pour these blessings out for others to enjoy and gain wisdom and strength, we would be said to be the tea pot. If we just kept them inside and never did anything with them or shared them with anyone, then we would be said to be the tea cup.

If we are a tea pot which pours of its blessings to others,then God will continue to bless our lives and give us even richer blessings so that our heart is filled to the rim with His love and mercy. If we are the tea cup and don't pour out what God has given us, then we will keep our blessings to ourselves and enjoy them for a time, but then they would become cold and stale and loose their flavor and would not even be pleasing to us anymore. They certainly would not be good to share with anyone else because they have lost their savor and meaning.

The more we share what God has done for us, the more people we reach for His glory and the more lives we influence and help to know the wonderful blessings God has in store for them. It is this that helps others to understand the love of God and will help them come to a saving relationship with His son Jesus Christ.

So I ask You. Are you a Tea Pot or just a Tea Cup. Both are very lovely and look alike and belong to the same owner, but how useful are you in your witness to others about the loving care and mercy of God. Only your actions will show where your heart is and what you really want to accomplish with your witness to others.

Matthew 10:42 says, "And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuradly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward." This tells me that if we continue to pour out God's blessings to all, God will always reward us for our efforts and what we do will not return void in His sight.

TEA POT or TEA CUP! You decide.

Picture is from the following address: http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=3926130276515337297&postID=1045732903402409263

GOD'S LITTLE NUDGES

2009-08-21T07:13:00.000-07:00

As we live our lives daily, God sometimes has a very interesting way of letting us know just what he wants us to do. There are situations that we are placed in and we cannot for any reason figure out just why we are there. Several times I have found myself in places with people and situations that it wasn't until after I left I knew why I was there. I teach in our community college and during one of the clinicals there a student was very upset. She had just started preceedings for divorce because her husband had an affair and she was very distraught about the situation. I saw that she was having difficulty and ask if there was anything I could do to help. She told me about the situation and how hard it was for her to do this because she had a little girl to think of in this as well. I explained to her that God does not want us to live in that type of situation and that according to the Bible she could divorce him. This made her feel better. I had just got my website up and running and gave her the address. I told her that I had some articles there that would help her and also had some stories for her little girl, as well as, a site with many types of activities there for her little girl to do. She went home that day and when she came back to clinical the next day she told me she and her little girl spent several hours on the site. She said that she read the articles and felt better about her life and her little girl enjoyed the stories and they found lots of things to do together on the link there in the Kid's Corner. She was much happier and said that she had a renewed strength in her life and felt that she could go on with her life with determination to do what was best for her and her daughter. I had no idea that day I would be counseling one of my students, but that was God's little job for me that day. It says in Psalms 32:8 that, "I will instruct you and teach you in the way that you should go; I will guide you with my eye." This tells me that God is always there and will guide us to the place we should be and give us just what we need to fulfill his work. God has never let me down in anything that I have ever attempted in His name. I believe totally and completely in His promises to me.

Stepping Out of the Box

2009-08-12T07:53:00.000-07:00

Stepping outside the box is sometimes very hard to do. I recently stepped outside the box and totally stepped out on faith in God. I was at a Seniors Conference in Tennessee in October of 2006 and the main emphasis of the evening service was missions. I enjoyed the music as I always do, but there was something very different about that night. The program started with a parade of flags from all the countries in the world. The first flags were from countries that had Southern Baptist missionaries there spreading the word of God. The second group were from countries that had not heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. As I watched these flags go by, I remember saying to myself we have a lot of work to do before Jesus comes again. My heart burned for these countries that had not heard the gospel.
The keynote speaker of the conference for that night was very vocal in telling us that we needed to go and tell these countries about the love of Jesus and spread the gospel to all the nations. His emphasis was that we were seniors and would be more apt to have the time and resources to go to other countries and tell others about Jesus. It was as though I could not sit still during his message that evening. He finished his message by giving a time of commitment. His call was for anyone willing to go for a week to one of these countries and to spread the gospel. He asked that anyone that would be willing to go to please stand up. I jumped up like a Johnny Jump-Up doll. As I stood there, I could not control the feelings that ran through my heart at that moment. I felt as though my heart were going to burst and there was an immediate feeling that God was all over me and it was a wonderful feeling. The next feeling I remember was asking myself, what have I done? My pastor and his wife were sitting next to me and knew what had happened to me. They were very happy and proud for me.
After I went home, I began to search the internet for missions trips to foreign countries that were for medical missions since I am a nurse. I found numerous ones and I applied to several. They were eager to go and as time went by, these trips did not make for various reasons. This went on for about four to five months. One day after I had spent some time looking for an opportunity to go, I just looked up and said, "God what do you want me to do?" I felt that I had made the right decision that night in Tennessee, but was having second thoughts about the whole thing. I gave up and stopped looking for a while.
One evening when I went on line to get my emails, I ran across an email from the Ukraine. I could not believe my eyes. I opened it and it was from a mission strategist there who had seen where I had applied for mission trips to foreign countries and they wondered if I would be interested in going to the Ukraine to serve. They were planning a Summit in Apex North Carolina where they and several other missions strategist would be there talking about the needs in that country. It just so happened that I had asked off for that week from work because it was going to be our church revival and I wanted to go. The meetings were going to be the same days as our revival. The only problem with that was that Apex was 41/2 hours away from where I lived. The meetings started at 8:00am and our revival started at 7:00pm. I knew in my heart that I needed to be there. Something was drawing me there and I knew that something was God.
I arrived the first morning and was met by the mission strategist that had sent me the email. I don't know how she knew who I was, but she did and she helped me register and go to my first meeting. While I was there I heard about all the needs in that country and my heart really began to burn and I wanted to go full time as a missionary. I met a lady who was a trip organizer for groups of people who wanted to go to the Ukraine to serve. She and her husband became friends with me and she told me that if I ever wanted to go on a trip to call them. She gave me her business card and I tucked it away in my wallet. They traveled many times during the year to the Ukraine and would love to have me join them.
While I was there, the mission strategists informed me that the church where we were meeting was planning a trip to the Ukraine and they needed a nurse to travel with them. This was very exciting and I immediately said yes, I would go. We kept in touch for a month or so after the meeting and then people began to drop out of that trip and it soon was obvious that we could not go. After this I did not know if I would ever get to go on a trip. I began to search the Internet again for more opportunities to serve. One day I remembered that my friends there had given me their business card and told me to call if I wanted to go on a trip. I gave her a call and she said that her church was going in October and that I would be more than welcome to come and go with them. I was so excited about this. We had our first meeting and I realized that I did not know these women and they did not know me and we were going away for 9 days to do a women's conference in Kherson, Ukraine. I had never done or participated in a women's conference before and did not know what I would do or say. The team leader passed out a book entitled "My Heart, Christ's Home" and told us to read it and to use that book to decide what we were going to speak on-when we were in the Ukraine. As I read that book, I kept on saying to myself, you are a nurse, what can you do there?
We had to have our rough draft of our message in by the next meeting. I prayed very hard to see what I was suppose to speak about. I felt led to do something medical and at the same time do something spiritual. I decided to speak about health issues and how to provide care for non emergent medical needs such as sprains, colds, fevers and so on. Then I would speak to the pain in the heart, but it was not a physical pain, it was a spiritual pain that came from not knowing Jesus as their Savior. I used the analogy of a butterfly going from the time it was in its cocoon until it made that slit and was finally able to make its way out as a beautiful perfect creature that soared through the skies.
While we were there, several of us sang in a trio and sang solos. Music has always been a passion of mine. My first degree in college was in music. This trip was not about what was my abilities, but to teach me that if I wholly leaned on God's direction, that I could be used of Him for His work and that He would provide me with the resources to use and at the right time. I must say that this was an awesome experience and that being in the absolute center of God's will for your life is an humbling but exciting experience, one that you will not soon forget.
Since that time, I have spent time in telling others about Jesus here in our own country and am making plans to go on another foreign missions trip. I have spent a great deal of time telling others about my trip to the Ukraine and what an awesome experience it was to be there and God lead you through all the aspects of that trip.
I once heard someone say that you really can't be a very good foreign missionary if you can't be a missionary here in your own country. That made an impression on my heart and has caused me to search my soul for the strength to always be about my Father's business, whether here or far away. I have since committed my life totally to doing His will. It does not matter that you are not in a specific place or time, just that you are in the absolute center of God's will for your life and that you are totally willing to do whatever He leads you to do.

We'll work Till Jesus Comes

2009-08-08T17:35:00.000-07:00

　
We all know that some day Jesus is coming back to take His church home to be with Him for eternity. Until that day it is our responsibility to work and strive to be the best we can possibly be for Him. There are numerous ways to accomplish this. First, we can just tell people what Jesus has done for us and work to lead them to Christ. This is a wonderful way to spend your life. The only problem with that is that God did not make all of us evangelist.
We all have different talents and gifts. We would not be able to accomplish much if we all did the same thing. Therefore, we must use the gifts and the talents that God has entrusted to us to do His work. He gave you and me our own personality, talents, gifts, strengths and weaknesses. He did this for a purpose. The purpose for this is you ask, is so that we can get His work done and done right according to His blessed will.
We don’t know how much time we have left on this earth. It may be years, months, weeks, days or maybe even hours or minutes. No matter what the time line, we are commanded by God to spend our time here on this earth doing His work. We are like an orchestra. God is the conductor and the rest of us are all the instruments in His orchestra. If we were all flutes, then there would be no depth to our sound and if we were all bass violins, then there would be no sweetness to our sound. We all have our part and we must all do our part as God deems for our lives in order for His orchestra to have that sweet melodious sound that He is leading us to produce.
If we put as much effort into doing God’s will as we do trying to make excuses why we shouldn’t, we would be able to do much more for Him and God would bless us and our work so enormously. If we all work together and use what God has given us, then His work would get done and we would accomplish much more in a shorter time.
In essence, TIME is our enemy. We don’t know how long we have until our lives are complete. It behooves us to work diligently and with great enthusiasm to get His work done and accomplish much for Him. We need to spend our time working as if there were no tomorrow, for there may be no tomorrow. Only God knows!