A Crippling Fear

By Rosemary Flaaten –

Relaying my family’s medical history is like reciting a death wish – Heart Disease, Diabetes, high blood pressure and Alzheimer’s disease. But the one that fills my heart with the greatest fear is Alzheimer’s. My mom started showing signs of this mind-robbing disease in her early 50’s. That’s way too young to forget how to balance your checkbook or to pick up your daughter from piano lessons. As an adolescent, I experienced up close and personal the effects of this disease; not just on my mother, but on our whole family.

So as I approach this same time of life as my mother’s battle began, I am having to beat back the fear “what if early onset Alzheimer’s is my fate?” In my darker moments. I challenge myself to remember the billboard slogan I read five miles back on the freeway and I test myself to see if I can recite the names of all my neighbours. Focusing on the fear prompts me to exercise my brain, but it also cripples my soul. Fear has a shrivelling effect. My focus becomes narcissistic as I pull in to protect myself from the horrible future my mind exaggerates. Fear takes me out of the present and suspends me in a future that is warped with shadowy unknowns.

Enter God. “My eyes are fixed on you, O Sovereign Lord; in You I take refuge” (Psalm 141:8). “Do not lose heart or be afraid when rumors are heard in the land (Jeremiah 51:46). “Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged (Deuteronomy 1:21). There are close to one hundred commandments in God’s Word to not be afraid.

When I am trusting God to hold me in the palm of His hand and protect my future, my fear dissipates. Fear is the antithesis of trust. Trust and fear cannot coexist. When I feel the rising tide of anxiety, I must take heed and pursue greater faith. God knows and holds my future. He will never leave me now or in the future.

PRAYER: Father, protect my mind from fear of the future and instead replace it with trust in Your ever present faithfulness.

“ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11 NIV).

Waves of Joy

By Marty Norman –

Recently I heard a speaker describe a phenomenon he believes will manifest in the Christian community in the near future. “Waves of Joy,” he calls it. “Such joy,” he says, “that believers will just ooze and pour out Christ upon all those with whom they come in contact.”

Isn’t that a great thought, pouring out Christ on all who God puts in our path? But why wait? Isn’t this what we should be doing right now?

And isn’t that a great picture?

When I think of waves of joy, what comes to mind are fields of wheat blowing in a West Texas breeze. Anyone who’s traveled in the Midwest knows what a field of wheat, waiting for harvest, looks like. No way to describe it but magnificent. Soft stalks of yellow ebbing and flowing with each breath of air that passes over them. As waves on an ocean undulate in their own rhythm and timing, so too do waves of wheat. As they move, they create a symphony of music as the tide flows in, out, around and through them.

Wouldn’t that be wonderful, if we as followers of the Resurrected Christ lived and breathed such music? What a pronouncement of life for others, what a beacon of hope to a lost and hopeless world.

Heaven knows the world needs to experience this joy. The images people get today from a world gone awry are not only shocking, but also horrifying. And it’s not just print media or the news. It’s permeated our kids’ world.

Just this week I experienced that world as my grandkids and I watched two cartoons together. Big mistake.

The first was Scooby Doo. The story line: Scooby and his friends sneaking into an abandoned house. When we tuned in, they were being pursued by an ugly witch who cast spells and incantations on them. Are you kidding me? Spells and incantations?

I grabbed the remote and switched the channel to the Pink Panther. How harmless can that be? Wrong again.

In this segment the main character was a blue elephant. Talking through a mouth at the end of his trunk he resembled the snake in the Garden of Eden. I wasn’t far off.

His first words to a school of rapt fish students, “Remember children, animals do not leave by leaves alone.” What? Hold on a minute. This sounds like a distortion of Matthew 4:4. “Man does not live by bread alone.” Surely not?

I missed the next scene as my mind was reeling. Jolted back into reality I heard, “Out of your produce, you will give me 50% of the profit.” Was he talking about a tithe here? Surely not.
Then came the clincher. I kid you not. A sorcerer’s hat appeared on his head, with a rotating circle going round and round. Yep, he was hypnotizing the fish.

Now I don’t know about you, but I was appalled. Perhaps I’m too sensitive but I think not. Maybe, just maybe, because I have spiritual eyes of faith, as well as grandmother eyes of love, I saw if for what it was—pure unadulterated evil, a world gone awry.

So there you have it, waves of joy versus waves of unadulterated evil. It’s time for the believing community to choose, to take a stand for good, to pour out waves of God on our young people.
Let’s not sit around and wait for the children of this world to be hypnotized by the evil one disguised as a blue elephant. Let’s pour out waves of joy now before it’s too late!

Hatorade

by Elaine James –

I overheard my daughter asking her angry friend “did you, like, drink some Hatorade today?” One of her friends had made a hateful comment toward another friend. My daughter took up for her, which is why she asked the Hatorade question. I heard her say ‘Hatorade’ and thought “What a funny question and word.” This is precisely the way slang words are created today.

Gatorade was invented with the idea that it is a high performance drink that absorbs quickly into your body to give you energy to activate your muscles. If there was a drink called Hatorade, I would imagine that after drinking some, it would absorb quickly into your soul and then cause you to spew hate out your mouth. Spewing words is an age old problem. Speaking without thinking will always get you into trouble.

Controlling the tongue is a difficult thing to do. You wouldn’t have got snappy with your husband if he did not get snappy with you. You are hurting so you want to hurt someone back. It is easy to be nice when life is going well.

Perhaps you feel like Paul when he said “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate I do.”

A binding exchange of promises with God should help us to watch what we say. That is the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

I don’t think we will see a drink called Hatorade at the grocery store anytime soon. It wouldn’t surprise me to see it in a Hollywood movie someday.

Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

PRAYER: Father in heaven I have trouble at times doing good. I ask you to give me the strength to say and do the right things. Thanks for listening. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

“People with understanding control their anger; a hot temper shows great foolishness” (Proverbs 14:29 NLT).

She is a…a…Sinner!

By Kathi Woodall –

“Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, ‘If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is–that she is a sinner’” (Luke 7:36-39 NIV).

This story from Luke’s gospel reminds me of three different groups of people in this world.

The first group sits inside the church and thinks, “This is a good place to be. I’m comfortable here. How dare anyone come in here with their alcoholism, or drug abuse, or divorce, or this, or that.” So they sit, inside, thinking.

The second group sits outside the church and wonders, “What’s going on in there? Something is missing in my life and something deep within me thinks the church might be able to help. But I can’t go in because of my alcoholism, or drug abuse, or divorce, or this, or that.” So they sit, outside, wondering.

The third group kneels at the feet of Jesus and doesn’t think or wonder about anything. They don’t have to because their actions speak more than their words ever could. They have come face-to-face with their own depravity and recognized their inability to overcome it. Tears stream down their faces and land on the feet of Jesus. Each tear cries out, “Take my alcoholism, my drug abuse, my divorce, my lying, my stealing, my anger, my indifference, my vulgarity, my…” So they kneel, at His feet, forgiven.

This third group is much like the woman at the feet of Jesus. He says of her and to her, “Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven – for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little. Then Jesus said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’” (Luke 7:47-48 NIV). The third group of people knows these words weren’t just meant for the women alone but for all who kneel at Jesus’ feet and accept His gift of forgiveness.

The tender moment of forgiveness may have made a great ending to the story, but the story is not done. The third group of people doesn’t just sit there, continuing to weep and lament over their sins. With the glory and the beauty of their encounter with Christ ever forefront in their minds, they rise up and leave the home of the Pharisee. Each one goes to a different place where Christ has told them to go. Each one has a unique job for the kingdom. But they all go, and they go in peace.

“Jesus said to the woman, ‘Your faith has saved you; go in peace’” (Luke 7:50 NIV).

Getting Stronger, Even if it Kills Me

By Kim Stokely –

A young friend (I now consider anyone under the age of 40 to be young) recently posted on Facebook, “It’s amazing how running makes you feel better. I love endorphins!”

I stared at the post for several seconds. I reread it two or three times to make sure I understood her meaning. Then I posted the following snarky comment in response, “I can safely say that running has never made me feel that way. Although I always feel better after I exercise, I think it’s my body’s way of thanking God that I’m still alive!”

I hate to run. Actually, I hate all exercise. Hate is probably too gentle a word. I despise it with every fiber of my being. I have nightmares of passing out on our elliptical machine only to be found hours later by one of my children while the pedals mysteriously keep turning and whacking me in the head. It’s quite frightening. It reminds me of the phrase, “That which doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger.” I can only hope my battle with the elliptical is making me stronger, because most days, I feel like I’m losing the war.

My loathing of exercise is one of the reasons why I hate action movies. They depress me. I know I’d be the person left behind to be captured by the terrorists or become dinner for the aliens because I couldn’t keep up with the rest of the group. And those scenes of the heroine clutching onto a cliff or window ledge by her fingers? I cringe every time, not because I’m scared the heroine won’t hold on, but because I know, if that was me, I’d be plummeting to my demise in a matter of seconds.

Why is it so often the things that are best for us are the hardest to do? It’s far easier to stay in bed an extra hour in the morning than get up and exercise. And how come we can stay up an extra half hour to watch a television show, but opening up our Bible before going to bed is so difficult? I think it’s because the things that are the best for us, don’t provide us with instant rewards. An extra hour in bed makes that morning a little easier to handle. Making the effort to exercise means working harder each day for a long time before our bodies begin to transform into leaner, healthier machines. The laughter a half-hour comedy show provides is an instant distraction to the troubles of the day. Spending a half-hour in God’s word means taking the time to examine our hearts in the light of His truth, and letting it work its way into the very fabric of our souls.

The best things in life aren’t free, and they certainly aren’t easy, but they are worth the effort. And so I’m off to face the instrument of torture, I mean the elliptical. Wish me luck. And kids, if I’m not in the kitchen when you get home from school, please make sure I haven’t passed out while getting stronger.

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