Read The Small Print, if there is any.

It could be because I’m a man.  I don’t usually read the fine print. Then again, on occasion I will read the instructions or the manual. After hearing a horror story about visa cards I thought I better read the fine print. 

Turns out the person who bought it had to pay a $6.75 fee. Really, pay someone to buy money? Then, if you don’t use it for a year, they start taking money off for ‘administration’ fees.  The person who I heard about forgot they had it and by the time they tried to use it, all the money was gone. That’s crazy, but you have to remember visa knows all the tricks.

Then again, isn’t much of life like that? You think something comes along that moves you and you are disappointed because it’s not what you thought. Be reassured, that doesn't include all of life. So much in life is amazing and wonderful and beautiful and fulfilling. We just have to look around and notice it. Here are two things in my life that go beyond paying for something.

We have children we love and they love us back. The grand kids sometime make us think and scratch our heads, but that doesn’t stop us from loving them. And what about brothers and sisters. We started life with them and in life we will walk on together until our last breath. That is what love is all about. It’s a reflection of the second thing. God never charged us for His love, grace, forgiveness and eternal life. We just had to ask. No small print, no deferred  cost added. Nothing! Here is what it says in Act; “Believe in the Lord Jesus. Then you . . .will be saved.”  Yes, it’s that simple. Go ahead, He’s listening.

Something to think about.

Rob

It's Not Me

Have you been like me? You know, for too many years you thought you were invincible. I think the Marvel comics play on that. I see kids pretending to be Spiderman or Wonder Women. Some go around the house, the neighbourhood, with a cape tied around their neck and wearing mom’s oven mitts.  

It’s no different from our childhood where we would pretend that we were Roy Rogers and Dale Evan, who in actual fact were also playing at being a hero. Same thing just different decade. For some, growing up didn’t change this all that much. Most of us would untie the cape and put away the hat and guns and still think we were in some way, still a super hero. Yes we got on with life, well almost.

In many ways, we still continued on with a glimpse of our past desire to be invincible. Not all the time mind you. Sometimes we took a piece of our childhood into the future. Hey, I even bought the horse. As we get older, much of that remnant slowly gets chipped away. Time has a way of doing that. It has now changed most of us and our miss steps and dreams of grandeur have slowly but surely faded into the past and we are left with reality.

This present truth lets us know a couple of things. The first is, we are still, and can be real heroes to the children coming up after us. Children are in desperate need of everyday heroes and you can be that person. After all, they are watching you and me and what heroics we are involved in.

Secondly, we can introduce them to the real hero of life, Jesus Christ. Didn’t He take away our hurts and miss-steps? Didn’t He put something within our hearts that changed us and forgave us and took our sins away? Didn’t He pay the price for our sin? No imaginary, or pretend superhero can do that. But Jesus did one thing that no real or unreal superhero can do. He came back to life! Easter! Let everyone know you have found a real SUPERHERO!

Something to think about.

 Rob

Good News

The saying, ‘It’s all downhill from here’ actually applies to everyone. Yes, everyone. No one is exempt. In the research I have done, the ‘prime’ of life is somewhere between 28-30 years of age. Sorry to all the older individuals like me that has to read this bad news.

But it’s not all bad. After all, don’t we start going faster when we are ‘going downhill’? Every age has its blessings. God made us this way so we can appreciate what He is doing in our life long lives. For me, after age 30, I started to think about life differently. You may have done the same thing. Our perspective on what is of value, important, and what is wasting my time starts about that age. We think different, we take a breath and we evaluate our life up until that point.

First we think about what we have missed and try to catch up. When we realize we don’t have to catch up, we move forward to enjoying the people in our lives and our arrival at our here and now. A reawakening if you will. Our priorities change and what moves us is more than things. For many of us, we think about what came before and what we missed and what is ahead, smile and feel contentment.

I believe this only happens when we throw off the desire to stay young, because you are what you think you are. But there is one thing about all of us that actually can get better and better as we get past 30 something. That is we can focus on growing in Christ.  A long time ago I learned about “lifelong learning”. Only later as birthdays came and went, did I understand it also came in the verse of scripture where it told us we are to ‘grow’ in Christ. And that is going uphill on a downhill run. Are you growing in Him? It’s the most important growth of our lives

Something to think about

Rob

It All Starts At The Beginning

As many of you know, we are now into what we call, LENT.  It is a time when we think more profoundly on what Christ came to do and how it impacts our life. Some of you may not know this but Lent is a glimpse of Jesus life at the beginning of His earthly ministry. He started off with 40 day walk in the wilderness. There he fasted, and prayed. We don’t fast too much in our world today. But we can walk with Him for 40 days.

The reality of life has changed. No longer da we decided to give up something for lent. It used to be we gave up something we really liked, maybe chocolate or candy or, well you get the picture. Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Tuesday) was and still is the day you gorge yourself on all those things in life that you should steer clear off. You know what I mean.

Ash Wednesday, is the first day of the fast and prayer; and unlike Jesus, we have to include repentance of sin. It is also the day we start walking with Jesus to His cross and indirectly carrying our own cross. Remember; “take up your cross and follow me”.

These two words always invade my life at this time of year, “Examine yourself”. If we are honest, and I pray you are, you will find things you and I need to eliminate from who we are as human beings. When we do, maybe, just maybe we will start to see the benefits we encounter on our 40 day walk beside Him.

Something to think about

Rob

Snow or Snow Bells?

We are all waiting patiently for spring. I'm wondering who is making the most difference in this quest? Is it those that are praying for more snow or others who are praying for snow bells to pop out of the ground any second?

Can you imagine how God is reacting to this dilemma? Here he is listening to both sides. What is He to do? This scenario is played out a million times every day. One person wants it this way while others want it their way. Doesn't matter the subject or the situation or even the difference of opinion.

When I was in school, we used to have debating exercises. I guess they were preparing us for the real world where everyone has an opinion and most either never agree or won't be convinced their side is wrong.

And so life goes on. But what if you bring God into this. Who wins the argument then? Before I go any further let me just say that most disagreements really don't change the way the world turns. God is sovereign and what He says goes and we can't argue that. Karen put something up on fb that talks about being right or wrong. God is always right, so Abraham Lincoln had it right; "..my concern is not whether God is on my side, my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right." 

So, forget about being right, just be on God's side and let it snow, or not.

Something to think about.

Rob