Who Holds The Eraser

When was the last time you used a pencil?  Doing carpentry work & doing crosswords or Sudoku excluded. Don't use one to write someone a note very often. It you think back, way back you might just remember using crayons before the kindergarten teacher handed you your first pencil. The crayons were what colour was all about. That yellow stick with carbon running the length coming to an abrupt end at the eraser. Which you thought you would never have a need for. One part was to write and the second was to correct your mistakes. 

About that time we also realized there exercise in using a pencil was to finish off the carbon before the eraser was all but gone. Right from the start we thought we had arrived until we notice how much we really hadn’t.  Seemed like it was one mistake after another, after another. Just when we finally seemed to be getting it right, the teacher changed the whole thing again by giving us our first BIC pen.

When we got the pen, again, we thought we had arrived. Here we were, just like the big kids, writing with something that was almost impossible to erase. Well, except with one of those very hard grey block eraser. And when we arrived at almost erasing the mistake the paper gave way. AAAAAAHHHHHHH. Let me just say, we don't want to talk too much about fountain pens where the ink becomes part of the paper and the only way to remove most of it is with bleach.

Our Christian walk is much like that journey from crayons, to fountain pens. We start off knowing Jesus died for us and we are forgiven for our mistakes, but we had not grown in our faith enough to toss the eraser away. Or do we.

You see, we may be at any stage in our spiritual journey and continue to make mistakes. lucky for us there is an amazing eraser and His name is Jesus. He alone, not only takes the error and forgives us of our blunders but He along with His Father remembers them no more.

This is the truth of the gospel. Asking Jesus for forgiveness and promising to never make that mistake again erases all our sins and purifies our heart.

Something to think about.

Rob

Because He First Loved Me

“Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” Can you tell me, if it’s true? I have heard that saying thousands of time over the years and I’m not sure it’s always true. Sounds nice when you’re telling it to someone you are passionately in love with. And I get that but, what about everyone else.

Case in point; I worked at one company for seventeen years and got to be great friends with a number of individuals over those years. There were some characters we did things together with outside of work, like going for chicken wings on Tuesday nights with Gary.  It was great. But when I left there, I didn’t see any of them ever again. We didn’t have the connection that brought us together in the first place.

Where is this coming from? Well, this morning I saw something and it reminded me of my dad. There was a chain of events in my mind that went something like this. I saw the brilliance of the sunrise that triggered my memory of Dad and another similar morning. That is when the mind took me on a wonderful journey. The outcome was not only that I smiled about how dad and I had an experience something similar those long years ago but it told my heart, I miss him still.

Out there, you are reading this and thinking of someone, some event or experience and the people you experienced it with. As you look away from the print, you relive some amazing moments and you smile. Some of you even remember some things you experience with God in Christ. Things that change your heart & life way back when. Then you wonder how you drifted away from the most important person, not just in the room, but in your life. Unlike not having my dad around anymore, Jesus is still here. He is still alive. It’s just that we moved away from Him.

The saying we started with is true when we are really in love with that individual. We need not allow life or anyone else, take us away from our ‘first love’. When life gets in the way it’s me who moved away from Him, and maybe now is a good time to go running back to Him and experience His love once again. And if you don’t know Him, go find Him and you will know what I’m saying. The words of the song written in 1855 is absolutely still true today: “Oh how I love Jesus . . . because He first loved me”.  And He is the connection that brings us all together.

Something to think about

Rob

Content is on the Outside, Peace is Inside

Are you a contented person? Or how about a person who is at peace? Some people would say these are one and the same. They aren’t. They are definitely different. I know that contentment usually, but not always, has something to do with where you are in your life at this moment. You will be satisfied, relaxed and comfortable.

Looking at the bigger picture we discover the world is not a peaceful place. There seems to be one thing or another that rattles our calm existence. There are other troubling things happening in our world. The bible even talks about wars and rumours of wars. Then there are economic problems. And these can be slightly disturbing, where your pay doesn’t make it to the end of the week, all the way up to not knowing how the finances of our country are getting way too far in debt.

Hasn’t anyone told our Finance Ministers you can’t spend more than you take in? These two peace shaking items only take our attention off of all the other personal items that disturb our calm demeanour as we trudge through life. And we ask ourselves, ‘how can I find some peace’ while the kids are yelling in the next room’? Is that number 3?

Fortunately, contentment can join with peace in our life when peace is God given. The Bible tells us that we have peace when we are connected to God and believe we are going to heaven.  It’s knowing our destination supplies us with contentment and peace at this time know God’s taking care of later and our ultimate future. In The Bible, we read an important verse that brings a calm only God can give us in the face of a troubled world.   Romans 15:13 puts it all together and reads: ‘May the God who gives HOPE fill you with great JOY. May you have perfect PEACE as you trust in Him’. And it’s all because He LOVES us.

Something to think about

Rob

Action Defines Love

Saw an interesting commercial on line just this past week.  It was on a Christian website and read: “Simple Assessment Reveals How Well You Really Love Your Spouse”. You listen to it, answer the questionnaire, and get the results, or so I’m assuming. This is what I heard just from the title. If you love someone – like, REALLY love someone, won’t you do ANYTHING for them? Forget the macho dude attitude and, if momma isn’t happy stuff. Neither will work well in a relationship as one will think they are more important than the other.

But I’m going one step further train of thinking and hope you want to join in, as this applies to anyone and everyone you love. Jesus definition of love is totally demonstrated in what He did for others. Just go and look, watch Him sitting with Nicodemus late at night when sleep was probably on His mind, or washing feet even though He was the most important person in the room. Or dropping everything He was doing to go shed a tear for Lazarus.

This is how it applies to our own situations. Yes, that’s plural. Here is what I think. What would you do to show a person you love them? Love always has an action and a reaction. As a manager a long time ago I learned a very important lesson. If you really want to lead with love you ask, “What can I do to make your life (job) easier?” Many times we don’t ask the question and don’t get an opportunity to demonstrate love in a mundane or simplistic way. Take a look at the young couple on their wedding day then look at them now. What happened with the love?

Maybe it’s something intuitive. Something you know but . . . you don’t do it. Well, it’s past time for all of us to put into practise Jesus command just after He washed feet. “Love one another AS I have loved you. . .

Not just Something to think about – but – love is something to do.

Rob