What a Trip!!!

~First of all, I wish I could tell you that this post is about a wonderful excursion we took to the U.P. (Michigan's Upper Peninsula for all you non-Michiganians/or Michiganders - whatever it is we are!) ~I wish I could detail the beauty along the Virginia Turnpike; describing the grandeur and majesty of the Blue Ridge Mountains. ~I wish I could show you a photo of a 23" Walleye that I'd caught after much heaving and hoeing!

~Nope! This trip is about catching both of my big toes on my own self-righteousness and slamming full force down into my own pile of filthy rags! And the problem is that my biggest challenge is loving the brethren. If there is one place in my heart that I'm going to be critical, it is of the brethren. And beloved, this ought not to be.

~It is still too easy to get up on my self-righteous high horse and comment, "Well, so and so says that they're a Christian! And look at what they're doing?!?!?!" Now, I'm talking up close and personal....people that I deal with directly in my life....Some days, this deals with my husband and I....THAT'S REALITY! Some days, it deals with those more inner circle than others....and sometimes with those not quite so close, but still within "arms reach". I'm telling you...the Lord yanked my chain so hard on this issue that I'm still spitting out dirt and gravel!

~So why is this? When we get up close and personal, sheep stink. The Lord calls us sheep....and as my son has reminded me, get close enough to a sheep...and it stinks! We all have areas in our heart that the Lord is still shaping and molding us....and this is mine! Oh, I wish that it were not so...This thing that I don't want to do....I do, and the thing that I want to do, I don't do...O wretch that I am...Who shall save me from myself? Only the Lord, Jesus Christ is able to do this by the power of His Holy Spirit....convicting of sin, bringing repentence of heart and then walking in the power of His Spirit.

~I truly believe the greatest demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit is to love our enemies and to love those that we would not choose out of a crowd...or our own home church...I'm going to say right out that God doesn't care about our stinky old ministry if we are not manifesting His Love for His Church and the lost...

~There's a contemporary song that's very popular in church right now...."I am a friend of God. I am a friend of God. I am a friend of God; He calls me friend." And oh, how we love to get all
yippy-skippy about this song.....But....did you know that God calling us friend is conditional on us obeying His commandments? John 15:14 "You are My friends if you do whatever I command you." John 14:15 "If you love Me, keep My commandments." Our friendship with God is conditional upon our obedience. Our friendship doesn't automatically happen at conversion. It happens when we obey His commandments. Beloved, we know what they are, but how do we live them out? "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and body." "Love your neighbor as yourself." In the end, these three abide, but the greatest of these is love. Even the Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 13 that even if he could do all things spiritually, he was absolutely NOTHING without love.

1 John 4:20-21 "If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him that he who loves God must love his brother also."

"Lord, help me to love today as You are love. Fill me with Your Spirit...Who IS Love. Help me to see others as You see them....Help me not to love in word, but in deed. Forgive me, Father for the places where I've blown it big time...Create a right spirit within me....yet not my will, but Thy will be done. In Jesus' Name, Amen."