Being a Christian is just like a pumpkin!

For some this may be a repeat for others it may be the first time you've heard this story. 

Whether it's your first time hearing it or your know it by heart, from time to time we all need a reminder.

Being a Christian is just like a pumpkin!

First, God picks you from the pumpkin patch and brings you in from the field. The Bible says He selects us out of the world. We are in the world, but no longer of the world.

He then washes all the “dirt” off the outside that we received from being around all the other pumpkins. All the outside influences of our former life must be cleaned up. Old things are passed away and all things are become new.


Then, He carefully removes all the “yucky stuff” called “sin” out from the inside. Sin will not have such internal power. He then changes us from the inside out by the Power of His Word. That’s why it is important to go the church and learn about God’s Word.


He carefully removes all those seeds of doubt, hate, greed, and fear. He replaces them with the seeds of faith, hope and love. After Jesus is invited inside, you begin to experience the changing power of God’s love in your life.

Then He carves a new smiling face. Our countenance is changed by the power of His presence in our life. We then become so grateful. It can even show on our face!

As we light the candle the pumpkin now reflects the light from inside out. So too, when Jesus, who is called the Son of Light, lives inside of us, He shines through our life for all to see. We can let His light reflect through us to reveal His presence. “Let your light so shine before men that they may be able to see your good works and glorify your Father, who is in heaven.”

So you see, we Christians are really like this pumpkin! We will never be the same with Jesus inside of us.

The Kitten

He had no choice, he was taken from his family and put into a new environment, in the blink of an eye his life changed as he knew it.  

He is scared and nervous, what will become of him?  Everything familiar has been replaced with things and smells he's never experienced before.   Why is this happening?  He may never know, he may never understand.  

He embraces the life he has been blessed with as he explores the new surrounding, what does this new life have to offer.  As he investigate he finds places of comfort; a soft blanket, food and water, a warm and loving lap.  He also finds places that cause him stress and worry, the banister he can climb on but not sure how to get off or the dogs who come up to him suddenly.  

It's in these times that he relies on his master to rescue him, to wrap him in their arms and whispers soft words in his ears letting him know that everything will be all right, they will take care of him.  

So as life would have it for a cat he continues in his feline ways, everything is a toy to be played with, he lives in the moment knowing that his master will take care of him.  

We are no different.  In the blink of an eye our lives can change as we know it - never to be the same again; the loss of a loved one, the loss of a job, or physical injury to ourselves or someone else putting us in unfamiliar territory.  

Like the kitten we may never know or understand why it has happened.  It's during those times of change we need to live in the moment and rely on the master to rescue us, to let him wrap us up in his arms and whisper those soft words assuring us that He will take care of everything.

 When I said, "My foot is slipping, your love, O Lord, supported me.  When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul.  Psalm 94:18-19

Kids In Church

3-year-old Reese :
'Our Father, Who does art in heaven,
Harold is His name.
Amen.'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A little boy was overheard praying:
'Lord, if you can't make me a better boy, don't worry about it.
I'm having a real good time like I am.'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After the christening of his baby brother in church,
Jason sobbed all the way home in the back seat of the car.
His father asked him three times what was wrong.
Finally, the boy replied,
'That preacher said he wanted us brought up in a Christian home,
and I wanted to stay with you guys.'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One particular four-year-old prayed,
'And forgive us our trash baskets
as we forgive those who put trash in our baskets.'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A Sunday school teacher asked her children as they
were on the way to church service,
'And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?'
One bright little girl replied,
'Because people are sleeping.'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A mother was preparing pancakes for her sons, Kevin 5, and Ryan 3
The boys began to argue over who would get the first pancake.
Their mother saw the opportunity for a moral lesson.
'If Jesus were sitting here, He would say,
'Let my brother have the first pancake, I can wait.'
Kevin turned to his younger brother and said,
' Ryan , you be Jesus !'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


A father was at the beach with his children
when the four-year-old son ran up to him,
grabbed his hand, and led him to the shore
where a seagull lay dead in the sand..
'Daddy, what happened to him?' the son asked.
'He died and went to Heaven,' the Dad replied.
The boy thought a moment and then said,
'Did God throw him back down?'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


A wife invited some people to dinner.
At the table, she turned to their six-year-old daughter and said,
'Would you like to say the blessing?'
'I wouldn't know what to say,' the girl replied.
'Just say what you hear Mommy say,' the wife answered.
The = daughter bowed her head and said,
'Lord, why on earth did I invite all these people to dinner?' 

"And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me."  Matthew 18:5

Thankful Thursday

Week #2

I am going on a journey with Truth 4 the Journey.
The aim is to list 5 things which you are thankful to God for!

 The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped.  My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.  Psalm 28:7

Click here to see what Sonja is thankful for and a list of others who are proclaiming their thanks as well.

1.   Even though Big K goes to college now, I am so thankful that she is close enough to come home for a family dinner from time to time.  And what I am really thankful for is the fact that she wants to come home for a family dinner from time to time.  She'll call to see what's for dinner and what time.  Shortly before dinner time she comes walking in the door with her school books for dinner and and an evening of studying.  ----Awwww family....

2.  I am thankful when God intercedes during a difficult conversation.  Giving me the right words to say and putting his hand across my  mouth when I should remain silent.

3.  I am thankful for the technology that keeps me in contact with my family and friends no matter how far away they are.

4.  This next one may sound lame, but I am thankful for an in-doors bathroom.  Call me spoiled but I would not want to have to get up in the middle of the night in the dead of winter and go outside to go to the bathroom.

5.  As I type this my head is starting to pound.  I know sometime in the future I will be thankful for the laughter of Big K has she pounds  runs down the hall chasing the dog making him bark and carry on.  Right now however, not so much.

Thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy day to visit my blog, I am thankful for all of my blogger friends as well.

Sheryl 

A memo from God

To:                     YOU
Date:                  TODAY
From:                 GOD
Subject:              YOURSELF
Reference:          LIFE

This is God.  Today I will be handling All of your problems for you.  I do Not need your help.  So, have a nice day. 

I love you. And, remember... If life happens to deliver a situation to you that you cannot handle, do Not attempt to resolve it yourself!  Kindly put it in the SFGTD (something for God to do) box. I will get to it in MY TIME.  All situations will be resolved, but in My time, not yours.  

Once the matter is placed into the box, do not hold onto it by worrying about it.  Instead, focus on all the wonderful things that are present in your life now. 

Now, you have a nice day.
God

How Long?

I took my son to golf practice today. The profoundly simple wisdom that comes from a child is amazing.

As he placed the ball on the tee and prepared to hit the ball onto the driving range, a lady watching my young son from behind asked him a question.

"How long have you been playing golf?" the lady asked. "Since I started," my son quickly answered.

I chuckled at first but then a higher meaning came to light, a MountainWings Moment. I don't know whether more MountainWings Moments are coming into my world or whether I am just becoming more sensitive to the moments around me. This was a MountainWings Moment.

A MountainWings Moment is a moment of insight that transcends everyday reasoning and takes your spirit above the ordinary.

He did not need to rack his brain trying to ascertain how many months or days he had been playing golf. At his age, he really doesn't comprehend months or even weeks. He lives in the present. "Since I started."

That's exactly how long you've been a subscriber to MountainWings, since you started. That's exactly how long you've been (fill in the blank), since you started.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

One of the world's greatest and most well know quotes tells you not to worry about tomorrow. That also applies to yesterday. Most of our hurt and pain is because of the memory of yesterday or the fear of tomorrow.

In reality, my son had just begun playing golf when he placed the ball on the tee. He didn't care about all of the other times; hew was playing now.

Today - since he started.

When are you going to Start living a fuller life?
When are you going to Start experiencing the real joy of life?
When are you going to Stop worrying about all of the things you can't do anything about anyway?

It doesn't matter how unhappy you've been.
It doesn't matter how long you've been feeling unworthy.
It doesn't matter how deep you think the damage is.

What matters is when you really Start to see the light. All that matters is the "since you started."

So when are you going to start...

Then with all of your negative history and negative stuff, when someone asks you "how long have you been this happy?" You know the answer to give them.

-A MountainWings Original-

This devotion really touched my heart this morning and I wanted to share it with you. Mountain Wings has some great daily devotions that can be delivered right to your in-box. Click here to subscribe.

Have a great day.

Stewardship Of Time

When I hear the word "stewardship" the first thing that comes to mind is money, but how many times have I really thought about stewardship in the sense of "time"?

Yesterday during the worship service we were reciting the "Church Covenant".........

We will be faithful in our stewardship and support of the Church, recognizing that our time, our abilities and our resources are all a trust from God to be used in serving Him and assisting others.

I was reading along and as I got to this section it hit me hard, as I continued to read the rest of the covenant things became a blurr, I could hear the rest of the congregation but everything was drowned out by this one paragraph. I could no longer continue to read the rest of the covenant. It's like reading scripture, sometimes you'll read over a passage that you have read several times but this time it grabs you.

All sorts of things start going through my mind, I'm not using my time, abilities and resources to serve God and others as I should.

I am feeling so in touch with God. What a perfect time to refocus my attention on Jesus, the week before he dies for our sins...my sins.

My eyes are now watering and I have goose bumps and all of this comes 45 minutes before I am to lead the church women into a 30 Day Challenge of Prayer.

God speaks to us in all sorts of media. I believe God is reminding me to use my time and resources to worship Him and to help others to really use this 30 day challenge to get closer to Him through the scripture and prayer, to narrow the gap.

Confession: I can be very selfish with my time and this whole thing has made me re-evaluate how I spend my time.

God has shown me that my time is a gift from Him and I need to be a good steward of that time.

I AM

Helen Mallicoat

I was regretting the past and fearing the future. Suddenly my Lord was speaking:

My name is I AM.

When you live in the past,with its mistakes and regrets,it is hard. I am not there.

My name is not I Was.

When you live in the future,with its problems and fears,it is hard. I am not there.

My name is not I Will Be.

When you live in this moment,it is not hard. I am here.

My name is I AM.

Source: Found in The Silence of Unknowing by Terence Grant

Getting on our knees

Lent is marked by a time of prayer and preparation to celebrate Easter.

Since Sundays celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, the six Sundays that occur during Lent are not counted as part of the 40 days of Lent, and are refered to as the Sundays in Lent. This I did not know until I started actually questioning what Lent really is.

The number 40 is connected with many biblical events, but especially with the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness, I think I knew that one.

Lent has traditionally been marked by prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. By the way, what exactly is almsgiving? To be honest I had not even heard that term until I was sitting in a Catholic baptism this last Sunday. For some reason I couldn't let this term go undefined. According to the Crossmap Dictionay: "Alms" is anything given gratuitously to relieve the poor, as money food, or clothing, otherwise called charity.

God uses all sorts of ways to get our attention, to speak to us, and to teach us - we need to listen.

To put it in simple terms (because I usual need the simple version) Lent is the preparation to celebrate God's wonderful redemption at Easter, and the resurrected life that we live, and hope for as Christians.

In her blog Jumping Tandem, Dee asks the question, "So much space between me and the holy. The sacred. How did that happen?" How does that happen I ask? Part of itis the enemy and the busy life we think we must lead - but that's just my opion.

Dee reminds us of the spirtual disciplines - Inward, Outward, and Corporate, holy experiences, and sacred pathways. Folks, it's time to unplug, yes enven from blogging for a while, to shut off the cells phones and Ipods, the television, and other distractions in our lives. It's time to get on our knees and give thanks to The Holy One, the one who offers grace and forgiveness when we don't derserve it. The one who gave his only Son so that we may have eternal life. To the one who made the ultimate sacrifice.

It's time we stop making excuses and narrow that gap between ourself and the holy, the sacred and it all starts with getting on our knees.

To God Be The Glory

I attended the baptism of the granddaughter of some very close friends of ours this weekend. This was a Catholic service and very different for me, I have been Baptist for many many years and have never attended a Catholic baptism. I mean no disrespect in any way, but I am sure God was laughing his head off where my H and I were concerned.

The kid in front of my was wearing a baseball cap (backwards), I didn't give it a second thought. An older gentleman came up from behind, sounding disgusted and asked him to remove his hat while he was in church, the hat was removed and that was the end of it. Part of me thought, does it really make a difference? What matters is what is on the heart not on the head.

It was a beautiful service of baptism, different for me, but beautiful. However, Gods humor did not go unnoticed. We were sitting with the family. At one point in the service the family started to get up and go to the back of the sanctuary. I felt a tug on my arm and was being told to "come on". Now mind you I wasn't necessarily paying as close attention as I should have and had no idea where or why we were going. Women were taking their purses so I grabbed mine. The lady beside me left her gloves in the pew, not knowing where we were going I grabbed them for her - bright red gloves no less.

While getting out of our row the owner of the gloves lost one of her shoes, tripped over it and kept walking. My H didn't know whether to pick it up, kick it under the pew, or just leave it until we came back, at least he knew we were coming back to our pew and wasn't carrying bright red gloves. Our group stopped - great we just went to the back of the sanctuary to the baptismal. There I stand with these gloves, quite obvious that I have no clue what I am doing. I handed them to the owner and just pleaded stupidity. Thank the Lord she was the mother of our good friends.

In our church I am used to sitting during the prayer so when the priest said "lets us pray" I bowed my head only to realized a couple of seconds later everyone else was standing up. I quickly jumped to my feet, my H got a good laugh out of that one.

The Lords Prayer is also said a little differently then I am used to, we got to a point towards the end and everyone stopped, everyone that is except my H and me. We continued to finish the prayer for a few words until we realized that no one else was.

The communion service is a lot more ritualistic then I am used to. I sat and wondered if all that was necessary. Then I thought what honor, glory and respect those rituals are meant to give to God.

To be honest I am not into the rituals but it did make me think about the honor that was given to God. I started to think about this during the service and have continued to think about it through out the day, how do I show God honor and glory? I don't have a quick answer to that right at this moment. I'm sure some ways are obvious and some are not so obvious, but I am definitely going to give that question a lot of thought and meditation.

How do you show God honor and glory, by removing your hat in church? Now when I look back at that hat situation, yes it did make a difference, by removing the hat it shows respect, honor, and glory to God.

Why is it so hard?

Ecclesiastes 1:18
"For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief."

What's this, I thought the Bible was supposed to be encouraging? Why is God telling me the more wisdom and knowledge I have the worse life will be? I don't need more sorrow or grief in my life right now, after all I have two teenage girls in the house. If more sorrow and grief comes with more wisdom and knowledge - I'll stay ignorant.

Then I went to the bottom of the page for a clearer understanding of the verse and in a nut shell this is what God is telling me:

Only in God does life have meaning and true pleasure. Without him nothing satisfies, but with him we find satisfaction and enjoyment. True pleasure comes only when we acknowledge and revere God. One of the tools God gives us to acknowledge him and to communicate with him is through the Living Word. We need to spend time in the Word everyday. Sounds like a pretty simple task or is it?

I co-lead our Women's Group at church with a wonderful person, I will call her D. D has sharpened me and been such a blessing to me in so many ways that I couldn't even begin to count. I thank God for bringing her and her family to our church. She is such an inspiration. You can visit her blog here.

Ok, back to the story, right now we have challenged the women of the church to spend time in the "Word" everyday for 30 days. We put together suggested reading for those who like a little more structure and/or guidance, leading a short meeting after church to see how everyone is doing, and just plain encouraging them.

Five days into the challenge I get the following email from D:

...how's the Bible reading going?

Crap, how does she always know when I start acting like a wondering sheep that needs to be brought back to the herd. How 's the Bible reading going? What kind of a question is that? I'm one of the leaders and I'm supposed to be setting an example for the women. Now she went and asked how it was going.

How do I tell my close friend and co-leader that I've picked up the Bible twice during this challenge so far and we are on day 5?

So I responded with the following email:

I support the challenge 100% but yet the flesh wasn't as willing. I was so excited about the enthusiasm of the women in regards to the challenge,but after the meeting I went home did our Sunday thing and then went out of town to celebrate a family birthday and it ended there. I prayed about it that night but again - a brick wall. Pretty much the same story with Monday, I did listen to KGBI and they quoted some scripture, does that count? No, I imagine not. Why is this so hard?

Tuesday I started to listen to Matthew in the car, how refreshing. I still didn't have a pull to dig into the Gospels. For the past week or so I keep hearing little snippets from Ecclesiastes which is weird because it's not one of those books that usually comes to mind for me. It seems no matter where I turn - there it is. I even put it on my own blog several months ago. So Tuesday night I started reading from the book of Ecclesiastes. Last night I was playing around on my Ipod and found free pod casts that could be down loaded. I thought to myself, I wonder if they have any pod casts of the Bible? You'll never guess, the last six pod casts that were posted were Ecclesiastes chapters 1-6, individually. Ok God, I get it, I hear what you are saying, I'll start studying Ecclesiastes. So with all my technical wisdom - I gave my Ipod to kj and asked her to down load them for me.

I'm struggling with this book, it's not one I've studied before, but what God is showing me is that with out Him EVERYTHING is meaningless. I am so thankful God gave you this idea and I hope that the other women are having a "light bulb", or as in my case a "duh" moment as well.

There you have it-authenticity (or maybe just too honest).

This is part of the encouraging email I received back from D:

....Why is this so hard you ask? To that I answer...never underestimate the power of the enemy. He really doesn't have to work that hard, does he? But he sure is influential! Ecclesiastes is a great book! There are so many beautiful words and turns of phrases. The message there is amazing! Sometimes it literally takes my breath away! Stick with it. You'll be glad you did. One of the things that makes God so amazing is the fact that He gives us choices. He knows what's best for us, but He doesn't force us into anything In The Message version of the Bible it's called "the unforced rhythms of grace." It's up to you to choose to spend time in the Word or not. You won't be punished for not doing it, but you'll be blessed beyond your wildest imagination if you do.


Thank you D for being a friend.

Matthew 19:26
Jesus looked at them and said, "With man that is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

So when life appears to be impossible or meaningless ask yourself, "Have I included God?"

Beeps in the night

It's 3:30 in the morning, I'm awakened by something, the dog is trembling - what's going on? Then I heard it, the stupid battery low beep from either the smoke detector or the carbon monoxide detector. Why does it wait until the middle of the night to go off? Okay, it's a little annoying but I think I can sleep through this. It beeps again, the dog is trembling even more. I though he was going to have a little puppy heart attack.

My husband gets up, takes the batteries out of the carbon monoxide detector- no more beeps. We settle back into bed, the dog is still trembling but hey I can ignore that and go back to sleep. A few minutes later...yup you guessed it...BEEP. I listened to it beep two more times and finally decided to get up.

Now I'm standing in the bathroom hold the carbon monoxide detector starring at it waiting to see if it will beep. It beeps, how is that, there are no batteries in it? With all the wisdom I could mustard up at 3:30 in the morning I shoved the thing in my dresser drawer - take that.

I walk out into the hall and BEEP, it's the smoke detector down stairs, good grief. I precede to go down stairs hauling a chair with me so I can reach the stupid thing. I unplug it, take the battery out and place the thing on the counter only to hear BEEP. Now it's the one upstairs, I go down stairs get my chair and haul it upstairs and dismantle the smoke detector and set it on the counter with it's counter part only to hear the BEEP again- it was maddening.

By now it's 4:05 am, I am not my best at that hour for problem solving - how can this thing be going off with out power? The thought had ran through my mind to put it out in the garage. I'm looking at the indicator lights on the detector and notice some writing in the same color, it said "Push to Hush". Oh man, could it really be that easy? Yup, I pushed it, it beeped (I wasn't smart enough to move the detector away from my head before I pushed it, but my hearing is coming back) and you got it - NO MORE BEEPS. Praise God.....

How many time has God tried to get our attention only to have us roll over and go back to sleep?


In 1 Samuel 3:2-10 God is trying to get Samuel's attention:

2 One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. 3 The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple ^[a] of the LORD, where the ark of God was. 4 Then the LORD called Samuel.
Samuel answered, "Here I am." 5 And he ran to Eli and said, "Here I am; you called me."
But Eli said, "I did not call; go back and lie down." So he went and lay down.

6 Again the LORD called, "Samuel!" And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, "Here I am; you called me."
"My son," Eli said, "I did not call; go back and lie down."

7 Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD : The word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him.

8 The LORD called Samuel a third time, and Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, "Here I am; you called me."
Then Eli realized that the LORD was calling the boy. 9 So Eli told Samuel, "Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, 'Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.' " So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

10 The LORD came and stood there, calling as at the other times, "Samuel! Samuel!"
Then Samuel said, "Speak, for your servant is listening."

How do we know when God is trying to get our attention? Sometimes it's just a nagging feeling that won't go away. Sometimes He uses subtle and not so subtle situations in our lives. We need to be prepared to hear God and respond when He gets our attention, just like Samuel.

The enemy uses business to his advantage-we tend to think the busier we are the more successful we are. In reality when we keep ourselves too busy we don't take time to praise God, spend time reading/meditating on His Word or just being quite so we can hear when God is calling. It's time we prioritize our time and put God first.

What are your beeps in the night that you are trying to ignore?

Is God trying to get your attention and you're just rolling over and going back to sleep?

Are you looking for the "Push to Hush" button?

When God calls on us we need to be ready to here Him and say
"Speak, for your servant is listening."

We are never alone.

The Cupcakes

I received the following email from a dear friend and couldn't resist posting it.

Sometimes we wonder, 'What did I do to deserve this?' or
'Why did God have to do this to me?' Here is a wonderful explanation!

A daughter is telling her mother how everything is going wrong:
she's failing algebra; her boyfriend broke up with her and her best
friend is moving away.

Meanwhile, her Mother is baking a cake and asks her daughter if she
would like a snack, and the daughter says, 'Absolutely, Mom , I love your cake.
'Here, have some cooking oil,' her Mother offers. 'Yuck,' says her daughter.

'How about a couple raw eggs?' 'Gross, Mom !' 'Would you like some flour then? Or maybe baking soda?' ' Mom , those are all yucky!'

To which the mother replies: 'Yes, all those things seem bad by themselves.
But when they are put together in the right way, they make a wonderfully
delicious cake!

God works the same way. Many times we wonder why He would let us go
through such bad and difficult times. But God knows that when He puts
these things all in His order, they always work for good! We just have to
trust Him and, eventually, they will all make something wonderful!

God is crazy about you. He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning. Whenever you want to talk, He'll listen. He can live anywhere in the universe and He chose your heart.