Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Untangled!

After I got dressed this morning, I opened my jewelry box and went to pull out a chain to wear and along came it with several others.  They were tangled, each string intertwined with the other.  Nine chains exactly.  I managed to easily pull out the one I wanted to put on, but the others still remained tangled.  I put on the one I wanted and since I had nowhere to go this morning, I decided to try and untangle the rest.  After about 20 minutes I untangled four from the midst.  Hubby saw what I was doing, how involved I was and simply cut on the light above me, so that I could at least see what I was trying to do.  Then after a few moments, as we often do when he leaves the house, we prayed and he asked the Lord to help me to untangle my chains.  And then he added, and untangle anything in her life today.  In total agreement I said yes, Lord.  Hubby left and then I went back to my “project” of the morning.

With my new light, I had my chains on the bed and continued working on them, while standing up.  After about 10 minutes I was really starting to get frustrated thinking about how fine the chains were and the knots were not coming loose.  I found myself actually afraid that I might break them.   Funny that at the sign of fear, God stepped in and began to help.  Which is why we have to have the Word in us, because even when we are not thinking about it, the Word will come to life.  God has not given you the spirit of fear… Holy Ghost said.  So with fear back under control, God then gave me the wisdom to sit down at my desk so that I could at least see the knot up close. 

I went downstairs, laid the chains on my desk (albeit balled up) and went to make a cup of coffee.  Came back relaxed and determined to untangle my chains.  Started working carefully and slowly on them.  Following one link through the entire chain until it became loosened.  Did that for a few minutes and just when I thought I got one loose, the magnetic clasp that I put on it, joined itself to another and was tangled up again.  (Side note:  I often had trouble putting on my own chains, because the clasps are so small and so hard to join.  So I found and purchased these magnetic clasps where you can just put them on whatever chain you have and easily join the clasp around your neck because of the magnetic links.  They work perfectly!!!)  Anyway, the magnets joined themselves together on this one particular chain I was working on and caused it to tangle up, again.  But not too much though, thank God. 

Finally after about 2 hours, I managed to get all of the chains untangled.  But it was a process.  Each one I had to remove one by one.  And in doing so, this is what I heard the Lord saying about my tangled mess.

God said, sometimes things in our lives get tangled.  It becomes a tangled mess.  Some of them we make ourselves by putting our hands directly on it, some of them just come together by the choices that we have made and some of them are formed because we are not careful in how we do things.   My chains were tangled because I was not careful in how I hung them in my jewelry box.  Then my chains were even more tangled because of the way I had my hands on them when I carried them downstairs in the palm of my hand balled up.  And some of my chains were tangled because they were drawn together by the magnet (an outside force).   

God said that sometimes things in our lives become tangled because we allow outside forces to draw things together that should not be.  We allow people to get into situations where their advice does not help.  We allow ourselves to get attached to things that please our flesh for the moment.  But in the end it will cause us to be tangled.  Tangled up in sin.  Tangled up in denial.  In circumstances.

Then God said this, we find ourselves entangled and we look to Him to get us out of it.  And He can and He will.  But we have to give Him time to do so.  To get out of things is much harder and takes a lot longer than to get in it.  See it only takes a second to be drawn to something.  But it takes some detangling (and some detoxing and demagnetizing, if you will) to be taken away from it.   The magnets on my chain simply came together.  Those things that we are drawn to we find easy to attach ourselves to it.  Then it takes some staying away, some pulling away, some prayer and sometimes fasting to detach ourselves from them.   I had to physically pull the magnets away and be careful to KEEP them away from each other.  And let me remind you it took me over two hours!  The mess we find ourselves in might have taken years to get in, the decisions we have made over our lifetime cause us to be in a tangled mess today and then we expect God to untangle them now.  He certainly can, but I believe His will is rather for us to learn something in the process, so that we don’t do it again. 

God will untangle the messes in our lives.  But He also said this, we have to trust Him enough to give it to Him.  To lay them down, flat out, so He can take a close look.  Just like I had to get close to see the knot in the chains to untangle them, we need to get to close to God, so that He can see the knots in our lives.  We tend to hide, keep at a distance or even pull away when we’re in a mess.  When what we need to do is draw nearer.  Get up close. Draw nearer to God.  So that God can see what is really going on.  So that He can see the detail in the knot.  We cannot be delivered from what we keep hidden. 

And then just like I knew with my chain, God said He knows how fine our chain is.  He has made us.  He knows what will break us.  But He also knows how much He can pull before we will break.  Hallelujah!

My chains are untangled, praise the Lord and pass the jelly (just like my hubby says).   And so is my life, because God is real.

A servant of the Lord,
Sis. E

“Those who leave everything in God’s hand, will eventually see God’s hand in everything.”  –Unknown

 




 


Thursday, April 2, 2015

Believe Thou This?



With Easter, Resurrection Sunday, (whatever you want to call it for whatever reason), coming up, as every year, there is much debate on what day Jesus died.  Seems like all the enemy has to do for some is sit back and watch while he gets us to focus on the less weighty things of the day.  The things that ultimately do not matter.  Good Friday not really being Good Friday, Sunday not being the Sabbath or the first day of week, Jesus dying on a Wednesday, and how it is that Friday to Sunday is three days.  Debates and questions of all kinds and everybody has an opinion.

Not going to say a lot about this, because like I said ultimately it doesn’t matter and I’m not going to waste my time arguing or debating over things of little importance.  Not trying to be evasive, not trying to avoid arguments, not trying to step on anybody’s toes or offend anyone, just desiring to state the Truth.
 
Was talking to my hubby and he pointed this out, “If God wanted us to know the exact day or date of when things occurred He would have stated so in His Word.” 
 
God told us what we needed to know.  Too many times we try to expand and get revelation on something that doesn’t need revelation; we just need to believe the Word of God.  Jesus went to the cross.  In doing so He was spat upon, ridiculed, put to shame, called out of His name.  He was beaten.  He was bruised.  He was scourged.  He was nailed to the cross. There He hung, He bled and He died.  And on the third day He was raised from dead.  Why?  So that we can have eternal life.  So that we can be free of our sins.  So that we can be reconciled to God.  That is the Truth.

Now, the day Jesus went to the cross, the day He was in the garden, the day He was born, the day He rose again; ultimately does not matter.  In continuing the conversation with my husband today, we talked about this: if you are drowning and are in need of someone saving you, when you look back at being saved, it does not matter what day of the week it was.  What matters is that you were saved.  That because of what someone else did on your behalf, YOU ARE ALIVE.  And that is what matters about the Resurrection.  What someone else did on your behalf.   Most importantly, someone died on your behalf.  JESUS.  Jesus died on the cross and saved you.  He saved me.  And He still offers that message of salvation, the Easter message, to all who will believe.  All who believe that THAT is what He did.  (The act, not the day). 

So if you want to continue to debate, to argue, and concentrate on the significance of the day or the date, I just want you to know there are more pressing issues.  He did it. And the only question that remains is whether or not you believe it?  Ultimately, that is the only question that needs to be answered for that is the one that determines your salvation.

Jesus Himself has said, “I AM the Resurrection and the Life.  He that believeth in Me, though He were dead, yet shall He live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die. Believe thou this?”

I choose to believe no matter what day it was.

God is real.

A servant of the Lord,
Sis. E