The End is Near Part 2

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“The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded…” 1 Peter 4:7

You can check out part one of this post here.

Since the end of all things is near – near in God’s sense of time, not ours – Peter gives us instructions. There first instruction is to be clear minded. Honestly that is one of the hardest things for me to be. Clear minded. He is not telling you to clear your  mind of all thought. Instead he is telling us to be sensible, use discretion, be sane. We are living in the end times. I see so much around me that distracts me. I can hardly remember to give my children allergy medicine in the morning without be distracted by dishes, lunches, my meal, etc. My mind is often not clear and the clutter keeps me from being sane and discerning. We are distracted by – things, people, ministry, etc. The bottom line is that there are lots of good things we can focus on and do, but if we are about the best things, the things God has for us to do, then we are no longer distracted. We are not clear minded.

Do you know why Peter tells us to be clear minded? He says at the end of 1 Peter 4:7, “…so that you can pray.”

We are so distracted that we cannot pray.

We are distracted by national politics, world politics, getting the next promotion, making sure our kids get the education they need, the lady who cut us off on the way to work, our boss who isn’t making wise choices, our money or lack of it, how clean or organized our houses are…Some of these things are good things to keep in mind. We are to manage some of these things, be knowledgeable about them, pray about them, but they can become all-consuming. Some of these things we need to just let go and move on. We have to find the things God has for us to be about. Otherwise we will be distracted and we will not be able to pray…

Father thank You that You are in control of the last times. Thank You that we can trust You to work out Your perfect will among the chaos of sin. Forgive us for being distracted by things that are not You. Help us to be clear minded in You. So that we can pray. In Jesus’ Name we pray Amen.

What are you distracted by? Let’s lay them down at Jesus’ feet, so we can pray.

Figuring it All Out

I have been spending too much time figuring out how to make my blog prettier. Seriously. So I don’t have the greatest post planned. However I have been memorizing with my oldest child a great verse I wanted to share.

Deuteronomy 31:8 “The LORD Himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged.”

1. The LORD creator of the universe is standing in your future. In other words all the steps we take, the winding paths, all of it He has already seen. He is already there before we get there. Amazingly enough He still loves us despite how many times we stumble and fall.

2. He will be with us. That means now in the present. Remember He is not bound by time so He is waiting for us before we get there, but He is also with us now. In the good times we are rejoicing, He is there cheering with us. In the difficult times in which we grieve, He is there comforting us. He is personal and with us now! That boggles my mind.

3. He won’t leave or forsake. So God doesn’t get fed up or tired of trying. He doesn’t ever say, “I am done with him or her.” No God is with us when we royally mess up, when we bring Him glory, and when we make a fool of our selves. He sees us at our best, our worst and every shade in between. He doesn’t say it is too hard to make this stick necked woman into the beautiful thing I made her to be. So I quit! NOPE God will never leave nor forsake. AMAZING and humbling.

4. Because God is in our future, walking with us in our present, and He will never leave us or forsake us, we do not have to feel afraid or discouraged. God is orchestrating our lives. He is there never to leave. We need not fear. God is never going to give up on us. We do not have to feel discouraged. No matter how many times we fall into the same pit of sin. No matter how long it takes us to bend our will to His, He is there. So we do not have to feel discouraged. We only have to look to Him!

Don’t you just love God’s word? What verse has spoken to you recently? Please let me know!

To Blog or Not to Blog…

So I am blogging with the purpose to air my thoughts…Well, they may not exactly be MY thoughts…They are more than likely things I think God is telling me through His word, prayer, friends, church, and so on.  You get my point.  As I examine these thoughts I often have to re-think my own way of thinking…My own way of doing life…Hence the name of the blog.

So what am I thinking about lately?!  Well, mildew…Yes, I have been thinking about mildew…WHY?  So in my daily Bible reading have been reading in Leviticus, about God’s direction for mildew, skin disease, etc.  So I have been struck with the thought of exactly why would God care about mildew?  I mean seriously, we are talking about mildew.  Yes it is nasty and certainly it can be destructive, but seriously mildew?!  So why did God care to give the Israelites rules about mildew?  Here is where my brain goes…What exactly is mildew and what harm can it really cause besides staining things and even in bad cases destroying clothes.  There doesn’t appear to this lay person and no Hebrew scholar that there were Hebrew words for discriminating between mildew, mold, fungus.  I mean they all pretty much looked alike and there weren’t microscopes to say these look different to more than the naked eye.  So we know now that mold, mildew, fungus can cause LOTS of health issues…from allergies, to pneumonia, asthma, etc.  God was clearly helping the Israelites with health information they couldn’t otherwise know or understand.  God is saying stay away not because I am some distant God who doesn’t like the smell or look of mildew, but because I want my people to be healthy and strong.  I want to give them ways of determining if this is a bad kind of mold, mildew, etc or if it is something to just wash and call it good.  Seriously, think about how much of an advantage this would be for God’s chosen people!!!  God was saying I love you and I want to keep you healthy.  You don’t understand it now, but in the future others will see how I was taking care of you.

How true that is of us all…As children we don’t understand why we aren’t allowed to run in the street or touch the hot pan.  As pre-teens and teenagers we wonder why would my parents say I can’t date or why don’t they let me stay out late.  We so often don’t see the danger until we are in the middle of the fire…Hands charred, lungs damaged (sometimes for a life time).  I am praying for myself, my friends, my children, the kids at church that we can rest in knowing that God has put authority in our lives to protect us.  To give us a future and a hope.  We don’t always understand His rules or our boss’s rules or why our husbands don’t want us to do (fill in the blank).  But God knows.  He is using those things in our lives to protect us, keep us healthy, keep us safe, keep us in His perfect plan for us.  May I willingly and humbly submit to the authority in my life.  I may speak my opposition, I may respectfully ask why, but I have to lay my preference aside for His way of doing things.  Oh, what a way to live.  Oh what a God I serve!