January 25, 2018

Whatever you do...word or deed...do as to the Lord - Col. 3:17

As I write this blog, I am grateful to have finished my Zumba exercise class for the week!  I actually love it...it is not quite as fast as you might think...lots of us are senior citizens (including 80 year old men in the back)!  When I exercise...whether on the treadmill or in a class...I am one of the few who wear a skirt over my yoga pants(leggings)...I know people think I'm a little odd for it.  I think the reason I do it is because I picture Jesus standing in the back of the class with the other men or behind me in the grocery store line.  I am amazed at what I see sometimes in front of me...there is very little left to the imagination.  I don't consider leggings pants and I think they are actually more like underwear than outwear!   I know what you're thinking...everyone and all ages are wearing them...it just makes me uncomfortable when the bottom is not covered!  I think our verse today tells us even in our dress, we do it "as unto the Lord".

I applaud the #metoo movement...those women are taking courageous stands against unwanted advances from men.  I just wonder why the networks parade female news anchors and reporters in the tightest dresses possible.   Why do women go to athletic events looking like they are going to a cocktail party?    Are we aware of what we are saying by the way we dress?

I realize this is not going to be a popular post, but I am trying to live as if Jesus were walking with me in all I do.   I love fashion and style, but I believe each of us has a responsibility...men and woman...to do whatever we do to represent the Lord and not to allow our flesh or the world dictate our standard of behavior.  There is too much to lose if we do.

For further study:  Gen. 3:6-7,  Deu. 5:32-33, Psalm 51:10, Proverbs 14:12, Romans 14:12-13,  1 Cor. 8:9, 2 Cor. 6:3, Ephesians 5:15-16, 1 Tim. 2:9-10, Titus 2:3-5.

Be blessed in your understanding of God's word.

Love,
Holly

January 16, 2018

Be still before the Lord and wait for him - Ps. 37:7

"Wait" has become a very unpopular word for our times...we want what we want NOW!  I am amazed at the brilliant minds working in technology to make our desires happen instantly and I believe it is a real challenge to our faith: will we be patient when God delays in what we ask?

A sweet friend gave me a book written by Russell Kelfer, who was a friend of hers.  It was a poem called WAIT.  In it, he writes (as if God is speaking):

I could give all you seek
and pleased you would be.
You'd have what you want
but you wouldn't know me.

In a recent study of Job, I came away with the conclusion that God did much of what He did in Job's circumstances that Job would know Him.  We knew from the 1st Chapter that God knew Job was "blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil..." so I believe it was not punishment that Job lost all that he lost.  His faith did not waiver...but he in anguish had to be still and wait for God's nearness.  That's what he really wanted and in the end he said: "My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you".  What a privilege that we can know God through a personal relationship with His Son (John 14:6-7)!

Will I wait patiently, in stillness, for the Lord to do His work in my life and will my lips praise Him as Job's did?  God loves you and me fiercely and waits for our wholehearted devotion to Him.  You will have a choice today of where you will spend your thoughts, time and resources...what will you choose?

For further study:  Job 42:5, Psalm 40:1, Psalm 130:5, Proverbs 27:21, Isaiah 30:18, John 10:4, Romans 8:23-28, 2 Cor. 12:9, Philippians 3:8-11, 2 Peter 3:17-18.

Be blessed in your understanding of God's word.

Love,
Holly