Moderation Explaination

Proverbs 25:16 Do you like honey? Don't eat too much, or it will make you sick!
       Here I am exhausted from folding laundry. My husband and I seem to both have an abundant amount of clothing possibly enough to clothe a tribe in Africa of people our size. Since we've been married we've already donated a great deal of clothing to Goodwill. Every Wednesday night I do laundry at my parent's house. Every Saturday morning I attempt to tackle the clean laundry and put it away.

      Today I was thinking of this scripture and realized it can be referenced to a great deal of topics. You've heard the expression "too much of a good thing is "not" a good thing"? Since we've been married we have tried to use this scripture to help us control our diet intake and now I'm coming back to it while I gaze at the pile of "my" clothes on the bed. Anytime I think of this scripture I'm reminded of one time when I was younger and I had too many Skittles and now I don't like eating candy so much. It is true when you have too much of something it is never a good thing.
   
      When Jesus came into the earth he had nothing his parents had very little he never had a huge home with lavish furnishings. Instead He lived very humbly off the mercies of others and God's provision. I admire the fact that Jesus could go anywhere without anything and do what God wanted Him to do.

      For our honeymoon we tent camped at Powder Horn in Old Orchard Beach. There I was with massive amounts of bug spray and still complained about bugs. We brought a whole bucket of clothes with us half of which we didn't even wear. It seemed silly to be burdened with so many things that we thought we needed but in reality were just a hindrance.
 
       Have you ever reached the point where too much of a good thing was "not" a good thing? This week I want to encourage you to downsize. Perhaps it's the amount of food you eat. Perhaps it's the amount of clothes you have. Perhaps it's the amount of time you spend playing games on the computer or video game console. Time to break free from the excess!

Luke 3:11  John answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.”

Humble Pie

2 Chronicles 7:14

if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Lately I've been hearing the saying "don't let your eyes grow bigger than your stomach" a lot.  When I think of where my life has been going these last few years I was never really pleased. When things happened which i felt were unfair I blamed people. When in reality I could have gotten myself out of the mess I was in if I just used the brain God gave me instead of trying to insist that everyone solve my problems for me.  Who was I to think that I should be dished out an "easy as pie" life? I know I have  calling to be a teacher. Yes the economy is very unkind right now to that specific calling and yes I was provided with a lousy education for it. However, instead of dwelling on the negatives I need to just push it off and move forward.  Sometimes I need to swallow my pride... and it is not always easy. Sometimes the best way to swallow your pride is to make it into humble pie. We need to understand we are "no one without Christ" and would get "no where" if God didn't have a plan.  Then we need to actually USE the gifts He's given us to get the task done even if it means getting our hands dirty. Bake all that frustration and anger about our circumstances into a nice pie and cook it in the humility until it is ready to swallow. Then move forward.

Today reading the scripture it just released what's been on my mind lately. I'm not humble! I guess I was going with the world that viewed being humble as a sign of weakness. If I admitted that I am the cause of my problems then I am admitting that I am nothing without God's hand in my life.  How can I "just" have God's hand without my own? Didn't God create me so I can do what "I" feel is the best thing "my" way. Somewhere along the road I climbed up onto this high horse and got comfortable. Then after reading this scripture I got a tiny bit confused. This was God talking but for some reason my mind automatically thought to Jesus. I was thinking He never did anything until He knew it was okay with His Father in Heaven. If anyone lived by this scripture it was Him.  Jesus didn't go around and say THIS IS UNFAIR! I should not be hanging from this cross I am called to be the King of Kings! This crown should NOT be made of thorns! This is "not" my calling!  Even when the world's sins came upon Jesus on the cross and all of our burdens... He obeyed His calling.  He was called to be the sacrificial Lamb. He didn't whine, mumble, or blame his teachers or parents.  He did what God wanted.  He fought through it all.

So I'm realizing now it's time for me to stop making excuses and pick up all my slack.  We all have a cross to carry and the world may not be easy but we need to keep on keeping on! When we humble ourselves and realize this then God will bless us beyond what we could ever imagine. It may not ever be in this lifetime... or it may, who knows. All I know is... it is time to take our pride and make some humble pie.

Matthew 23:12 

For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

Easy Street

Matthew 7:14

But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

      It's a new year! Are we going to still continue down that same path? You know the path "everyone" looks for... the easy way out. Anyone loves an easy road we don't have to worry about any speed bumps or stop signs. We don't have to worry about any caution signs and we never would have to put on our hazard lights. Unfortunately, life is never that easy... even when we belong to God.

A lot of people believe that when they give their hearts to Christ that life will be easy from then on out. Christ says to give Him our burdens because His yoke is easy and His burden is light. It doesn't say our burdens will disappear. The difference is when we cast our cares upon Jesus He "helps" carry our burdens instead of us carrying them all by ourselves. However, we need to also realize that when we belong to Christ and our identity is through Him we are going to take on a lot of His burdens as well. Jesus never took the easy road... if He did He would have never willingly submitted His body to go through torture and be crucified on the cross for us. It wasn't even "just" the physical agony that Christ went through. When Jesus was alive He lived the life of an outcast maybe even an outlaw according to the pharisees. He was always running from people who wanted to kill him ever since he was a baby. The people who welcomed Him in put themselves in the line of danger as well. Peter was a good example when he was afraid for himself so he denied Christ three times. Thankfully Christ forgave Peter because the bible says "anyone who denies Me will be denied before My Father in Heaven". We don't want to deny who we are in Christ just to take the easy road. Yet people do it all the time.

    When I grew up in the public schools there was one half of a year in middle school where I was harassed because of my faith. Children spit on me and called me the Virgin Mary, why? because I was "saving myself" for my future husband and honoring God. To them that was an open opportunity to harass me. I am sure we all go through things like this where we are harassed through situations because of our faith even if it's just a joke a work. There are even people who "die" for their faith because they will never deny Christ. The thing I'm constantly reminding myself is... yes I will be persecuted but "blessed" are the persecuted we wont get treasures in earth but our treasure is in Heaven. We wont "fit in" or "belong" here but our home is in Heaven and I am okay with that.

     The bible says "what good does it do a man to profit the whole world but loose his soul". There are people who are walking around with one foot in the world and one foot in God and they can "not" serve two masters. The master of the world is "Satan" and I "know" I want "nothing" to do with him. However there are still Christian's who believe it's okay to live a worldly "easy" lifestyle and belong to Christ. You may "think" that that road is easy but the place it ends up will be far more torturous than you can ever imagine. So be careful which path you take the path less traveled but with a promise at the end or the path which is beaten the path of the world that leads to destruction.


Next time you come to the fork in the road remember to read the signs. Do not take easy street this year.  

Luke 9:23 

 Then He said to them all: “Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves

and take up their cross daily and follow Me.