Between Sundays

I have just finished reading "Between Sundays" by Karen Kingsbury and it really got me pondering on how important between Sundays are. I recommend everyone grab a copy and read this novel.

Each Sunday we sit in church, singing, nodding and smiling at everything our priest says and reads, acknowledging what God expects from us but how serious do we take it? Do we consciously make the effort to try or do we often use the excuse "I don't think this week's message was meant for me".

What happens after Sunday? This novel is about teaching a famous football player about the importance of having God in his life but also how important between Sundays are.

As believers, we think we are doing our best to be more like Jesus in the way we conduct ourselves, treat others and our general being but how important is it to us? Are we keeping it front of mind at all times? I don't think so.

Bottom line, as in the novel, the saying goes: What you do between Sundays is more important!

In other words, yes, it's great that we praise and visit with God every Sunday, learning and listening but it's what we do when we are not in church that really counts. It is how we conduct ourselves outside in front of others. That's what God really wants! He wants us to show others how great He truly is.

What's the point of smiling, singing and nodding on Sunday if we don't keep it going from Monday to Saturday as well? How do we expect others to believe in our God, find comfort in knowing Him if we aren't expressing our saving grace through our words, our actions, our morals and values.

Never forget that the smallest act could mean everything to someone. God didn't make us all preachers but He did give us what we need to make a difference in any size.

So, I urge you this Sunday, when you sit and pray in church to ask God to help you be more like Jesus where it counts.....BETWEEN SUNDAYS.

Sshh....it's a secret!

  Sssh....I can't tell you, it's a secret sin. 

This week, two words keep popping into my head. SECRET SIN.

Sin is all around us and as much as we try not to sin, we do. God is our Father and like all parents, He wants us to be perfect. But unfortunately, like our parents tell us, we can't always get what we want.

Do you have a secret sin?
I do. And no, I'm not telling.

Why do we keep it a secret?
Deep down, we know we shouldn't and most times when we are aware of it we feel guilt, humiliation and shame in secret. Let's be honest, we also think that those around us can see our secret sin but they can't unless we tell them.

Should we keep it a secret?
NO. God wants us to turn to Him for help, forgiveness and the skills we need to to stop. If not God, then someone. In society today, we are told to be more open and honest with those around us, but how many times when we do this, do those around us judge us.

Personally, I say stick with talking to God. He knows it anyway and God loves talking to us behind a closed door, in silence. What parent doesn't like having a one-on-one with their child, especially when their child is being open and honest, desperate for help and guidance.

We shouldn't be ashamed of sin because we do sin. We should however keep trying to stop. Temptation strikes and as much as we try, the devil gets his way and we can't resist sometimes. Like my blog before, don't let the devil become a capital letter in your life. Let's God's angels wrap their wings around you to protect you from the devil's flames of hell.
 

The Holy Spirit whispers in our ear to tell us not to. We just need to believe in our willpower and strength received from the Holy Trinity to not even consider the thought of sinning in secret. I know it is easier said than done but with God it is easier done than said. 





 
 Sshh...it's a secret NO MORE!

Lord, I am in great trouble,

so I call out to you.

Lord, hear my voice;

listen to my prayer for help.

Lord, if you punished people for all their sins,

no one would be left, Lord.

But you forgive us,

so you are respected.

I wait for the Lord to help me,

and I trust His word. 

I wait for the Lord to help me more than night watchmen wait for the dawn,

more than night watchmen wait for the dawn.

People of Israel, put your hope in the Lord because He is loving and able to save.

He will save Israel from all their sins.

Psalm 130

Capital Letters

In the English language, we learn that any word that has a Capital Letter is naming something. And in many cases, that something is important and to be noted as it has a title, a name, belonging to something or someone.

My name, your name is important. Our names are written with a Capital Letter. When reading my Bible for my writing, I noticed something I found very interesting. I read the scripture when Jesus was tempted by the devil. When we write about the devil, we often give his name a Capital but in the Bible, his name is not written with a Capital “D”. So, what is that telling us?

Well, it is telling us that first of all, the devil doesn’t deserve having a capital letter in his name. It also tells us that he has no place in our life. His name is not as important as yours or mine. God gave us parents who named us with a Capital Letter. We are important, to be noted, to belong.

The devil clearly not having a capital tells us that even the people who wrote our scriptures don’t see him as important, be noted or belong anywhere in our life. God doesn’t see him as important anymore. The devil tempts us, urging us to sin and for whatever reason, we often allow his temptation to win us over.  But he doesn’t deserve our weakness and even our sin.

Who gave him a Capital in our life? Who made him important in our life? Who made me noticeable?  Who made him belong in our life? I did, you did, and we did. And he doesn’t deserve it!

But then you debate with me and say, “Okay, but the word “Satan” is written with a capital letter and I reply, ‘Yes, you are right’. And here is why. Because like I’ve mentioned before, Satan is important, should be noted and does belong.

Huh! Satan is importantly unimportant in our Christian life. Important because we need to remember that he is not important, is unnoticeably noticed and doesn’t belong anywhere in our life yet he seems to belong because he tempts us regularly. God wants us to know about Satan so we can be appear of how he can affect our life God has given us and how to not be tempted by the empty promises and lies.

Don’t allow the devil to gain a Capital Letter in your life! Don’t let the devil become important, noticeable! Don’t allow him to belong in your life!

There is only one person consisting of three people that has the right to have a Capital in our life. That one is God - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit all have capital letters in the Bible which tells us they deserve capitals in our life too.

Allow God to be important in your life, allow Jesus to be noticeable in your life and allow the Holy Spirit to belong in your life.

We all get tempted in our life but remember like the devil, the word “temptation” doesn’t have a capital in the Bible either.

So give yourselves completely to God.

Stand against the devil, and the devil will run from you.

James 4:7 

Always a widow but not always married

It’s funny how I have gotten over being a widow but yet I am battling to get over being married. You probably read that sentence thinking I don’t get it. While, let me enlighten you.

I have dealt with the fact that I lost a husband and that he is not coming back and I will never get to see him again. I have also dealt with that yes, I am a widow and people look at me with pity because of my age, circumstance and the fact that I had to experience that kind of pain. They also assume that life and love will go on for me.

Yet, I still can’t find a way to get over being married. People like I’ve mentioned before would love to see me with a man who can love me and look after me the way I deserve but the problem is not the men but me. I can’t get over that I was married and technically am not anymore.

I took my marriage vows seriously and I lived trying to keep them by being the partner God intended me to be. But now that my husband has died, I need to realize that I am not married anymore and am trying to come with grips with that I am single. And that I can think myself as single. I was a Mrs, but now I am one without the Mr.

And that’s difficult! My heart is surrounded by a wall of commitment to my husband and God. I have forgotten that this wall needs to be opened to allow love to flow in, to give someone the opportunity to love me and I think I am going to need the people around me as well as God’s help with this.

Commitment is important to me and I have lived my life these past years fully committed to a man I can no longer love here on earth but can carry his memory with me. I am committed to an intimacy that I can’t get to feel and experience anymore.

My heart was so filled with him that I built the wall to keep it in but it is not helping me anymore. As much as I loved my husband, the wall is hindering me and making me think that if another man breaks through I am breaking my marriage vows. It is easier to write this realization than live it.

Not many reading this blog, will understand how deep it runs, how hard it is and how heart wrenching it is to try and change this. It is not easy trying to get others to understand especially when you are in a different life phase than those around you. It causes you to keep things to yourself as you do not want to burden others when things they can’t comprehend and the fact that I can be a very private person doesn’t always help either. I just pray that that others can help start making cracks in the cement and brick to allow more love to flow through.

. The true widow, who is all alone, puts her hope in God

and continues to pray night and day for God’s help

1 Timothy 5:5

So I want the younger widows to marry, have children, and manage their homes.

1 Timothy 5:14

Always a widow but not always married

The Lone Wolf

 

The wolf howls on the top of the mountain in front of a full moon….alone.  The pack can hear but she is not like them even though she is part of their pack. She thinks differently, walks differently, talks differently. The wolf takes part of the pack’s activities. She loves her pack but yet is still alone.  The wolf still howls at the moon, alone. 

How many of us know a lone wolf?

She sits in the corner, watching. She watches from the outside, looking in. The lone wolf smiles at the right things and quietly answers the questions being asked but deep down, she is misunderstood.

The lone wolf’s heart is guarded and often has many scars on it. Being understood hurts especially when the misunderstanding is from the ones she loves. She howls at night to let other lone wolves know that their loneliness is respected yet they don’t have to be lonely if they don’t want to be.

She hurts but inside. She cries, in a room alone. She feels when others can’t see, can’t sense.  Her mind, her heart and her spirit is locked like a vault.  A vault with a code that only certain chosen ones get to use it.

Each lone wolf is loved and a part of a pack. It’s just that the pack doesn’t fully grasp how the lone wolf’s brain and heart works. How the lone wolf perceives the world around them.

Are you a lone wolf?

The lone wolf is often a beast of beauty. Her vicious eyes glow in the light of night. She roams the darkness for love not meat. The lone wolf is often the one with a good heart, a body of faith. Many people around her don’t get to see the lone wolf’s full potential because they don’t understand and see the lone wolf’s true being.

Do you look from the outside in?

But there is one, one who sees all. We might not fully comprehend and understand the lone wolf but someone does. He sees right through her.  He sees what lies in her heart, what lies on her heart, what makes her heart beat.

Are you misunderstood?

He envelopes her in love, folds her in faith and holds her in hope. He gives her the confidence she needs to embrace being the lone wolf, the confidence to try and step out the corner, out of the night light into the light of the sun.

He is GOD.

 "For My eyes are on all their ways;

 they are not hidden from My face, 

nor is their iniquity concealed from My eyes"

Jeremiah 16:17