Guest spot

Welcome to Unseen today. Today's story is from Linnie Branton's new book Lesson's Learned from the Garden. Linnie is an artist and writer and has been a volunteer in different capacities at Faith Works and at Freedom Fellowship.  Lesson's Learned from the Garden is being released this week and there will be a book signing at the old firehouse in Clyde Saturday, December 13 from 2:00 to early evening. Linnie's encouragement and help was a great help in getting my writing started. Enjoy  her story and for more information on how to order her book or art contact me at susanmccabe26@gmail.com.

Out of Season

My flower bed is a bit confused. The flowers that bloomed in the summer have decided that enough is enough. No matter how much water I give them, no matter how warm the sun shines, they are finished. They have completed their journey. They have dropped their seed to assure that another generation will follow them. They have put down deep roots. Some will have new plants shoot up from those same deep roots come spring, the parent plant being long gone. Others will die out all the way down to the roots. The plant itself will fertilize the soil that once fed it. When finally pulled up out of the ground, the deep roots will loosen the soil as it is released to fall back into place. Seed will fall into the loose earth: water will soak into the dirt creating a perfect environment for new seed to put down new roots. This is life in the flower bed.

The confusion comes because the seasons this year have been a little out of synchronization. Spring happened quickly. Winter was cold and fierce. Then it was gone and summer came. There were no spring rains, no cool nights and mornings that gradually led into summer. There were instead days and nights of freezing dry cold and then they were gone. All at once it was summer. Days were hot and dry with no rain. Water levels dropped. Water restrictions followed.

Most bulbs bloom in the spring. They wait for the ground to soften with spring rains. They stick their little heads out of the ground in the cool nights and early mornings. They even shake of a light snow or soft freeze and bravely wake up before the sun warms the ground. They delight us with the knowledge that the cold is coming to an end and warm weather is ahead.

My bulbs missed their season this year. But now, this October has unseasonably warm days, with cool nights and dark cool morning. There has been a little rain. My bulbs have decided to bloom, out of season. I am delighted. My heart has gone back to spring. With love and gentleness I remove a few stray weeds that try to compete with my bulbs. I give them just enough water to soften the soil and bring nourishment to roots that are stretched into the fertile soil. I watch each bud and wait for the flower to open fully so I can examine its unique beauty. The calendar may say October, but my heart says spring.

I compare my life to the bulbs. I have missed a few springs. There have been seasons that turned from frigid dry cold to scorching dry heat. There were some seasons where spring never happened. Without undue guilt, I must confess: some of those springs were missed because I never looked for them. It does not matter now. Spring is here, in my heart.

Jesus, you are the springs in our lives. Help us to be more like You. John 21:25 says, "Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.

Capture the Flag

Welcome to unseen today.  Well, the holidays have arrived. Holidays are great, but let's be honest. For those of us who live Unseen they can also be really difficult. Whether you are a caregiver or a person with disabilities, your holiday probably doesn't look like Norman Rockwell. (Of course as my child reminded me, none of the people in the Norman Rockwell picture were actually related.) There is plenty of grief, guilt, resentment, loneliness and embarrassment. People asked me how my holiday went and I put on my happy face and said "Great." when I really spent a lot of my time off  crying. Read on for a place I learned to get help.

Capture the Flag

Put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground, and having done all to stand. Ephesians 6:13

Have you ever played the old game of Capture the Flag? You need two teams of 10 to 20 people, two flags and several hundred little bags of flour. The bags are made of napkin or paper towel so that they break easily when they hit something. The goal is to capture the other team´s flag. Team members try to advance toward the flag while keeping under protective cover. If they are spotted, the opposing team members pelt them with bags of flour. Once you are hit with flour you are dead and can no0 longer play. The first team to capture the rival flag wins. It is a great game for team building skills such as cooperation and strategy.

Personally I was never very good at the game. I am not fast and can´t think more than 3 moves ahead in a process. I was always one of the first to be killed off. The minute I popped my head up I was pelted with flour from every direction.

Sometimes my Christian life feels like that too. I start to make progress and BAM! Here comes a bag of trials. It is easy to get blindsided by a trial from a direction I don´t expect like an issue I thought I had dealt with. The last few weeks I have been bombarded with trials of illness, financial stress, strife and struggles with boundaries. However as a Christian I realize that I have a resource I never had in capture the flag. Ephesians 6 tells us this. 

   Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand        your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

I am still going to be pelted by problems, but I have hope. Jesus said in John 16:33, "In this world you shall have tribulation but be of good cheer for I have overcome the world." I may be hit with difficulties but I am not going to be Out, because I have the protection I need if I learn to use it. Practice with your weapons this week and put on your armor.

Roots

Good morning and welcome to Unseen on this cold day. God has been good this week. My books are now being sold at Mardel's and i have begun the process to see if Lifeway bookstore will carry them. Pray that God will put them in the hands of people who need them. Today's story is about living through the times when you can't see what God is doing.  Read on.

The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. 21 But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. Matthew 13:21

I have never had the green thumb that my mother did, but I have tried to grow things. For a long time I wanted an aloe vera plant. I finally had one flourishing and was glad to have it for burns and skin problems. One day my child came in and said, ‘’Look, mama! This is what’s under the dirt!” I looked up and he was holding the plant by the leaves with the roots sticking up. I agreed that it was very cool and tried to show him how to replant it, but it never did flourish again. Without its roots being firmly planted it would not get the nutrients it needed and it was not anchored. Roots, whether they are long and straight or fibrous and branching are what make it possible for the plants to survive and to grow.

Roots are just as vital in our spiritual lives as they are in the natural world.  Sometimes there are times when God’s grace and blessing pours down on us like a summer shower and other times when we get a slow steady flow of his presence and love. I know that many of you are going through dry, difficult times, though. Whether it is illness, grief of financial woes, it is easy to feel that God has forgotten about our troubles and that no one else cares. The truth is that as hard as we try as human beings we will let each other down. When that happens we need to have our faith deeply rooted so we can survive and eventually thrive again.

God uses this picture of plants, vines and roots many times because it gives us a illustration. For example, in Ephesians 3 we read   “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” In Colossians 2;6-7 Paul says, “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” He also warns us about thing that can take root like weeds, such as the love of money (1 Timothy 6:10) and bitterness. (Hebrews 12:15). I have to keep that one beat down because it will grow like wild fire.

As we watch the coming of winter (We skipped fall here in West Texas this year) we see the plants turn brown and bare. They are still alive though and the roots continue to provide what they need. Let’s remember that in our lives we need roots, too. Be rooted in love, be rooted in Christ and abide in Him as the vine. (John 15) Spring will come again. More importantly, God will come again, maybe sooner that we expect. Even so, come Lord Jesus.

Puzzled

Puzzled

If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. 2 All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God. Deuteronomy 28:1-2

One of my favorite ways to relax is working jigsaw puzzles. Having something to do with my hands frees up my mind to work on problems and come up with ideas, and can also make for good prayer time. The first thing I do when I start a puzzle is to build the edges. This gives me the boundaries, the size and the shape of the finished picture. The next thing I do is to sort similar colors and patterns. For instance, if I am looking for pieces where the sky meets the trees I will find those that have both blue and green. Once I have the similar pieces gathered I look for ones that complement shapes. For example if I have a piece with a sharp peak, I look for one with a deep valley to fit it with. I prefer to keep the box handy so I can use the picture for reference.

Life can be "puzzling" sometimes. Just like it is easier if you fit the edges of the puzzle together first, It is easier to walk with God if you know where the boundaries are. Yes, I am talking about the "R" word. (RULES) We can react in one of two main ways to God's rules. Some people chafe against them and see how close they can get to the edge of the boundary without going over. Others like me love the rules because they are easy to quantify. Keeping the rules is something I have some control over, and felt much safer than trusting my salvation and my life to a fuzzy concept like grace. In Deuteronomy 27 and 28, God show us his design for the rules. He gathered half of the people on Mt Gerizim and half on Mt Ebal. He told them through Moses that if they would obey the laws and not turn to the left and the right, they would have these blessings. If they did not they would have curses. He intended the rules to be guides and boundaries, not to be either chains or checklists.

We can see colors and patterns in life as we do in puzzles. Fellowship is SO important. I have been unable to get to church for a couple of weeks and it is amazing how quickly we can get weakened and discouraged. It is good to seek out people who are like us and who believe the same way, but that is not the whole story. 1 Corinthians 12 describes the church as a body. What if all the hands decided to start their own club? Brings up pictures of the Adam's Family, doesn't it? While we need fellowship with people who are similar, we also need fellowship with people who are different. This is true in worship and it is true in ministry. We each have our own unique shape and place in the puzzle. For instance, I was feeling bad the other day and I told God that I was sorry I hadn't written any songs lately. God let me know that there are lots of people writing songs, but my writing voice is unique and no one is doing exactly what I am.

Finally, let us remember that we have a pattern. Jesus willingly left heaven to come and show us how to live. This gives him the right to be our high priest and our intercessor. Hebrews 4:15 says He was tempted in always as we are, yet without sin.

God has put us in community, he has given us guidelines and he has given us a pattern. Use these tools in this puzzling world.

 

Work in Progress

Welcome to Unseen on a beautiful fall day. This story may have been posted before, but I couldn't find it. The last couple of weeks God has really opened a lot of doors and I have had some divine appointments. Watch for new links soon to help you find other sources that share this vision of helping people who are living Unseen. In light of the open doors, today's story is about how God continues to bring us from glory to glory.

Work in Progress

And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.   2 Corinthians 3:18

                My little boy was very allergic to mosquito bites and they would swell and itch miserably. He had several bites on his ankles and had scratched them until they bled. Then the blood had dried, effectively gluing the socks to his legs. I did not realize this and when I was getting him undressed for bed I pulled his socks off and he howled. He put his little hands on his hips and said, "I wish I had the kind of mother who would take my socks off slow when I have a boo-boo." Full of remorse, I said, "I'm so sorry. Will I do until they can find you a mother like that? Wiping his eyes, he said, "Yeah. They're working on that kind of mother but they are not finished with him yet." God is still not finished with me as a mother.

                I was walking to the library to work on proofreading this book. I was a little distracted but my attention was quickly arrested. Our part of West Texas is on the migration path of the Monarch butterflies. Between the sidewalk and the library, probably a hundred gorgeous monarchs flitted in front of me. It was so exciting that I felt like a child. It made me think of the awesomeness of the creator and also of his transforming power. The proud-looking Monarchs with their bold orange and black coloring come from a striped caterpillar that bears little resemblance to the adult. I am so glad that the same God who can make that transformation is at work in me.

                2 Corinthians 3:18 says,  And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. I am so glad that God did not leave me as I was when I first came to him in 1978. I am glad he did not leave me as I was in 1994 when I re-dedicated myself to serving him out of love and gratitude for who He is, not just to follow the rules. He has used situations in my life to draw me closer to Him and make me more like Him. He has taught me things in His word and molded me through service. The more time I spend with Him, the more he changes me.  As I am beginning to take more "faith-steps" in my ministry I see such a change from the scared, inadequate person I used to be.

                It is easy to get stuck at one level of grace or growth. How do you avid this? If you want to be changed into God's likeness, you have to behold his likeness. Spend time with Him in study and worship. Spend time with His people. James says, "Come near to God and He will come near to you. (4:8) If you want more of God, He is eager to meet you.

Chocolate

In honor of fall weather, (Finally) we are revisiting a past story. In fact this is the story that started it all. It was the first one I wrote for my project with my friend. The lessons never get old.   Besides who doesn't love chocolate?

Chocolate

Count it all joy my brothers when you encounter various trials, know that the testing of you faith works patience, and let patience have its perfect work.  James1:2-4

             The other night I was drinking hot chocolate and I heard from the Lord.  I love to drink hot chocolate, especially on a chilly evening.  I was thinking about the different kinds of hot chocolate. Once, my child decided to make his own hot chocolate. He stirred chocolate chips into a glass of milk and was very distressed that it did not taste better.  Then there are the instant hot chocolate mixes.  They taste good, but often leave clumps of chocolate at the bottom.  Finally, there is the good old-fashioned hot cocoa, where you heat the milk and stir in cocoa and sugar.  Nothing quite compares with this. 

            Believe it or not, there is a spiritual application here.  All of us are in different places with God. Some are just beginning to be open to the word and it has not taken root in their lives.  Their walk with God is like the chocolate chips and milk. The good things of God’s word and his spirit are present, but they are not able to make much difference yet.  Others have come farther with God and are letting the word and the spirit affect some area of their lives. They may have cleaned up their language or behavior.  They are becoming sweeter. They still have clumps in their lives, though. These are areas where they have not allowed God to touch, for some reason.  Finally, there are those who are trying to let God into every area of their lives and live by the power of the spirit.  They are like the old fashioned hot cocoa, a sweet sacrifice to God. 

            There are two requirements to this state.  There must be heat and the ingredients must be stirred.  Have you been feeling the heat lately? Has God been stirring you up?  Don’t despair.  You will be a sweeter fragrance to the world of God’s glory. Finally, remember, God has not left you on the burner alone. He is still in control and will not leave us

No experience necessary

Welcom to unseen. Once again, I had a totally different plan for this week's post. When I sat down to write it, God "changed the channel in my head. Maybe you need to read this as much as I n eeded to write it, especially if you have ever felt unworthy or unqualified.

No Experience Necessary

But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. John 16:33

Recently I attended a painting class with a local artist. We were assured that no experience was necessary. Most of the students had little to no experience and were more than a little anxious about how the project would turn out. Fortunately, there were four things to help us ensure success. The basic outline was already done in charcoal, giving us a pattern to work with. It showed us where the general boundaries were for different elements in the picture. Second, we had a finished painting to look at for an example and a standard. Also, we had the teacher to instruct us and guide us. She painted along with us and then walked around giving specific tips, such as the fact that if what we painted wasn't what we intended we could either paint over it or use a wet rag to wipe it off. (Bonus lesson on grace in our lives). Finally we had the other students to help us. Another person might be able to clarify something that we didn’t understand from the teacher. In the end, even though they were completely different, we each left with a painting we could be proud of.

Although some of us have been in church since the second Sunday we were alive, others come to God later. Either way, walking with God is something that can be difficult. We are not sure what God wants us to do and even when we do discover our mission and purpose, we can't do it alone. That's OK though, because we were never meant to. He has given us everything we need for life and Godliness. (2 Peter 1:3) He has given us a pattern in his Word that shows us the general boundaries for how we should act and who we should be. I am very grateful for the Bible, and it gives me lots of wisdom. I have mentioned before that I am thankful that my Grandpa began Bible stories and memory verse drills from before I could remember. I remember when I became a Christian thinking, "Why isn't there any practical advice on how to be a Christian?" Then I read the book of James and realized that there is. As wonderful as the Word is and as much as we should treasure it, it is not our only help. God willingly sent his son to earth, both as a sacrifice and as an example or standard. As Max Lucado says, Jesus is God with skin on. He didn't stop there either. He sent the Holy Spirit to instruct and guide us, interceding (or being a go-between) for us before God. We also have our Christian family to help us understand and show us how they walk out the Christian life.

Let’s look at the power of these tools. In Hebrew 4:12 we read “the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart .” Psalms 119 is David’s beautiful psalm of how much he love’s God’s word and his Law. In verse 105, he says it is a light to his path and a lamp to his feet. Although we are familiar with what Jesus did for us, we cannot forget how precious it is that we have a high priest who was like us in every way. (Hebrews 7) Because we cannot see or hear him, we may discount the power of having God’s spirit as our intercessor and guide, but to do so would be like trying to use your computer without plugging it in. Also, we can rely on our Christian family even the ones who get on your nerves. 1 Corinthians 12 describes the church as a body, where no one part can do without the others.

So you want to walk with God? It may not be easy, but it is simple.Using the tools at our disposal, there is no experience necessary.