Chicken Conversation

Did you know...

Baby chicks and mother hens start chirping to each other before the chicks hatch out of their eggs. When they hatch, chicks already know their mother's voice.

Psalm 139:13-18 tells us that God made us and knew us before we were born and He thinks about us a lot.

After baby chicks hatch, they chirp when they are under their mother's wing because they are happy.

Psalm 91:4 says, "He (God) will cover you with His feathers and under his wings you will find refuge".

In Luke 13:34 Jesus said, "I have longed to gather you together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings."

If a chick runs away and gets lost, the chick will call it's mother and the hen will answer the chick by chirping so the chick can find it's way home.

God is our heavenly Father. He sent his son, Jesus to die for our sins so we could be forgiven of all the things we have ever done wrong. If you have not asked Jesus to come into your heart, you are a lost chick.

In Jeremiah 33:12, God says "...you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

If you would like to find Jesus, pray: "Dear Jesus, you are God and without You, I am lost. Please forgive me for all that I have done wrong. I want to be a part of your family, stay close to You and live the right way. Come into my heart today Lord Jesus. Amen."

Shell and Shield

I can still remember the first time I ever held a box turtle. It was at my grandmother’s house – in her backyard. I was totally enamored with it’s shell - bright orange, green and yellow. It amazed me that an animal could be so soft and so hard, all at the same time. I was intrigued by the way the turtle could retreat into his shell and stay perfectly hidden. I tried in vain to coax him out of his shell with a handful of fresh-cut grass. In the end, I had to wait patiently until the turtle decided to stretch his arms, legs, head and tail out of his shell again.

Have you ever noticed the similarity of the words “shell” and “shield”? The similarity doesn’t stop with words – the turtle’s shell is indeed a shield from predators, from injury and even inquisitive children. The bony shell is covered in a natural camouflage to the turtle’s environment. It is both a shield of sight and touch. It is a most amazing and effective shield in that it totally surrounds the turtle. There is no direction the turtle can turn and be uncovered. He is protected on all sides.

In Psalm 144:2 David says of God:

“He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer. My shield in whom I take refuge.”

Just like the shell is a shield to the turtle, God is a shield for us. It is God who keeps us safe in times of trouble. It is God who is our strength against predators and potential injury to our heart, mind, soul and body.

There is no time, no place, that God is not our shield. In Psalm 139:5, 7-10 David speaks of God being an ever-present shield.

“You hem me in – behind and before; You have laid your hand upon me.

Where can I go from your Spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there;

If I make my bed in the depths you are there

If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

If I settle on the far side of the sea,

Even there your hand will guide me,

Your right hand will hold me fast.”

Regardless of how far away, how hidden from God we can imagine being, there is nowhere we can go that God will not be with us. But how? Why?

A turtle is always connected to His shell. A turtle cannot survive without it. Not simply because the shell protects him, but because the shell is part of him and he is part of the shell. While the shell is mostly separate from the turtle, the strength of the shell (the bony ridge on top from head to tail) is actually part of the turtle’s backbone. In essence, the turtle is in the shell and the shell is in the turtle.

Several times in Scripture, Jesus talks about living in

us as we live in Him. In John 15:5, Jesus says:

“I am the vine; you are the branches.

If a man remains in me and I in him,

He will bear much fruit;

Apart from me you can do nothing”.

And then there is the wonder of instinct. While the shell is a perfect shield, it would be of no help to the turtle if the turtle didn’t use it. God created an awareness of both safety and danger in the turtle. When it is safe, the turtle walks about carrying a large shield with him that may appear to be of no help at all. But in an instant – at the first sense of danger, the turtle retreats to safety behind his shield. Suddenly what seemed empty and useless is now the most precious and valuable part of Him.

Sometimes in our lives difficulties may come that beg the questions: “Where are you God?” “Why aren’t you protecting me?”. These questions often bring us to a place that our faith feels like an empty shell. But if our faith seems to be an empty shell it is simply because we have not filled it by putting ourselves completely into God’s protection through our full faith in him.

Doubting God is like laying down your shield in the middle of a battle. You are totally exposed to the predator of your soul – Satan – who “goes about like a roaring lion – seeking whom he may destroy”. Believe me, Satan is not in this for the battle – he is in it to win the war. The last thing he wants you to do is trust in God – whether it is for the first time or the hundredth time. Satan’s goal is your utter destruction. He is your enemy. Satan, not God, comes to “steal, kill and destroy.” When you see death, poverty, sickness trouble surrounding you – be assured it is not God’s doing – it is Satan.

John 3:16-17 says,

“For God so loved the world that he gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”

So I encourage you today – take up your shield of faith. Use the “instincts” God put in you. Call on God and trust in Him. Ask Him to live in you. Depend on Him as your source for everything – your strength, your shield, your very being. He will not let you down. He is the shield that never fails.

Oysters & Pearls

Precious pearls…

Pearls are one of my favorite stones. They are so beautiful, elegant in their simplicity. And for all their delicate beauty, they have been transformed from a grain of sand to precious stone through resistance to constant pressure and being covered over and over again by the oyster.

In Matthew 13:45-46, Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven is like a precious, costly pearl. Like a merchant who sells all that he has in order to buy that one precious pearl – God did the same for us.

Ugly oysters…

In stark contrast to the beauty of the pearl is the ugliness of the oyster from which it came.

When God created the world, He made everything beautiful, perfect and pure – even man. But when Adam and Eve (the first man and woman) sinned they were no longer pure and therefore He had to banish them from the beautiful garden He had created. They were turned out of the Garden of Eden into a stark world. The world was their oyster – difficult, painful and full of pressure. The ease of Eden was only a precious memory.

But God did not leave them hopeless. He promised that one day, He would send a Savior. Yes they would have difficulty – they were now the sand in their “oyster” world. But God would make them able to withstand the pressures of sin and be layered over and over again with forgiveness as they lived a life of obedience to Him.


Purchasing the pearl…

Part of the price of any pearl is the cost of the oyster. You can’t buy the pearl without buying the oyster first. Not only that, but you can’t buy the pearl without buying the oyster it came in as well as other oysters that hold no pearls. When harvest comes, everything is harvested at once – pearl or no pearl.

God illustrated this through the gift of our Savior, His one and only Son, Jesus. God “sold all that He had”, His perfect and sinless son, Jesus to purchase each and every one of us - a world of “oysters”.

When Jesus gave His life to pay the price for us, He knew that He was paying for both those who would choose to accept Him and live for Him (pearls) and those who would reject him (empty oysters).

Romans 5:6 says,

⁶You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. ⁸But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Retrieving the pearl…

No one purchases a pearl just to let it sit on the water’s floor hidden in an oyster. Neither did God purchase us to leave us in this oyster of a world forever. God sent Jesus to purchase us so that we could be reunited – restored to a pure and perfect relationship with Him, the Garden of Eden relationship He once had with Adam and Eve. Walking and talking together in the cool of the day – seeing Him face to face – never separated again.

1 Thessalonians 4

¹⁶For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

Dear God,

Oh I thank You for sending Jesus, your most precious Son to purchase me. Thank you for your forgiveness that covers over my sin and makes me new in You. Thank you for not giving up on us and leaving us separated from you forever. I look forward to your coming again so I can walk with you, hand-in-hand, never to be separated again.

Amen.

Candlelight

I have a tray of about 10 different candles in my living room. Some of them are short, some are tall, some are scented, some are not, and none of them are the same color. Yet at different points in time each of them had something special that made me want to purchase them. Yet, sitting in my living room, they are “just a bunch of candles”. What makes any of them attract attention compared to anything else in the room?

Light one, any one.

It doesn’t take long for a flickering candle flame to catch everyone’s attention. If only one candle on a tray of ten candles is lit, it is that one lit candle that will get the most attention. Why is that? It doesn’t matter if that one candle is shorter, fatter, taller, skinnier, prettier, more functional, more perfumed than the others – it matters that the candle holds the flame.

Darkness…
Think back to the last time there was a severe storm during the night at your house and you lost power. What was your first thought when the lights went out? My first thought was – do I have fresh batteries in my flashlight? My second thought was – light every candle in the house. Why is that? Why do we desire light? Darkness brings us into the world of the unknown – we are isolated by sight from one another, we are unfamiliar with our path and often stumble because we cannot see what lies ahead of us. There is a certain hopelessness that comes from “living in the dark”…but it only takes a spark to bring us out of the darkness and into the light.

Jesus – the Divine spark.
Zechariah (John the Baptist’s father) prophesied about the life work of his son and in so doing revealed how Jesus, the son of God would be the light of our world:

76And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,
7to give his people the knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins,
78because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
79to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace."
(Luke 1:76-79)


And just as Zechariah prophesied, Jesus did come as a light to our world.

Jesus said, “…I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." (John 8:12) And again He said, “I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness”. (John 12:46)

Throughout Jesus’ life here on earth, He brought light everywhere He went. Where there was sickness, He brought healing
Where there was sin, He brought forgiveness
Where there were lies, He brought truth
Where there was confusion, He brought clarity
Where there was captivity, He brought freedom
Where there was judgment, He brought mercy

He lived His life on earth as a light among men, and died – innocent but judged guilty – that we might also have His light living in us, shining through us as His light to our world.

Catch fire!
In Matthew 5:14-16, Jesus imparted his legacy of light to those who believe in Him when He said: “You are the light of the world.”

In my living room, on that tray of candles, if I only light one candle, only one candle will burn. If I want to light the other candles, I must bring a spark to each candle that I would like to burn. A candle cannot burn without first coming close to the flame.

In the same way, we cannot bring light without first coming into contact with Jesus – the divine spark. Think of the last time you lit one candle with the flame from another candle. When the dry wick came into contact with the flame, there was a burst of bright light as the two candles burned together. In the same way, the closer we stay to Jesus, the more we live our lives like His, the more we depend on Him for our light, the more we lean on His understanding more than our own, the more time we share with Him, the brighter and stronger our light is.

Stay lit!
Each candle has a life. At some point every one of the candles in my living room will burn until all the wax has melted away. But throughout the life of each “used up” candle – is a candle who has lived it’s purpose. God created each of us with a purpose – to accept the light of His love and to carry the flame of His love to our world. How do we live up to our purpose? How do we avoid “burning out”? We first recognize that a candle doesn’t light itself. While good works are a fruit of our Christian walk – just as an apple is the fruit of an apple seed, it is not: our works, our efforts or our good intentions that keep our light shining – rather, it is our commitment to spending time with Jesus every day.
Psalm 18:28 says, “You, O Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light”.

Dear Lord Jesus,

Thank you for coming to us as a light to our world. Thank you for shining your light in my heart – both revealing sin and completing forgiveness. Because of this – I carry your light – your hope – your joy. Let “this little light of mine” shine brightly as I remember to lean on you and spend time with you each day. Let me be drawn to you “as a moth to a flame”. May I live my life with purpose, holding your light aloft in this dark world that others may find the same hope and joy I have found in you.

Amen.

Breath

Have you ever wondered if God really is doing anything in your life today? Have you felt alone? Have you felt like God is sitting back watching you trip and fall and not intervening? Do you feel like the only things that are getting accomplished are the things you are doing all by yourself with no help from God at all? Let’s test your theory for proof…

Whatever you are doing, right at this moment, large or small – hold your breath.

Counting…1…2…3…

4…5…6……

...Don’t take a breath…keep holding….

…keep holding…

…keep holding…

…keep holding…

Now BREATHE before you pass out!

Genesis 2:4 – 7 speaks of the creation of man. Verse 7 says: “the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”

From the first breath you took on the day you were born until now, God has been with you. In all your work, in all your life, God makes you physically able to accomplish the goals He has set for you. If God were not present with you, if God were not concerned for you, if your work was not important – all He would have to do is take away the breath of life He gave you and it would be finished.

If you are still breathing – there is still important work for you to do.

If you are still breathing, God is still with you – you are not working alone.

Sometimes our life’s work lets us breathe rested and easy like a sleeping child, sometimes it leaves us short of breath and struggling for the next step. But God always breathes easy and it is He who supplies our very breath.

Acts 17:25 -28 says:

²⁵And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. ²⁶From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. ²⁷God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ²⁸'For in him we live and move and have our being.'

So don’t grow weary in your work. God is with you. If things seem impossible, perhaps you are trying to live, move and have your being in your own strength. It is true that on our own, without dependence on God, there is much in our life and our work that is impossible. But, as it says in Luke 18:27, "What is impossible with men is possible with God."

So when things get “impossible” in your life and work, take a moment…take a deep breath…and remember – God is in you, God is with you and what is impossible for you alone, is absolutely possible through Him. With every breath you take He is living and moving and making the impossible – possible in you.

Do not grow weary, rest in Him. Breathe easy and rest.

Recipe for a Rainbow

The other day I was pleasantly surprised by the sight of the most beautiful double rainbow I have seen in some time. Normally when I see a rainbow, I am in the car and it seems very far away, but the other day it was right there in my neighborhood. We were literally right under the rainbow. To be able to get the rainbow framed in the camera lens, I had to almost lay on back or get on my knees. It was so beautiful, and so big!

Just this Sunday we had a word of encouragement – not to give up on our dreams. Many of us in our church have dreams of ministry. Some have had these dreams for years. It was said that if God gives us the dreams, they are really His promises and He will make them come to pass. He says in His Word:

"For God's gifts and his call are irrevocable."
- Romans 11:29

He will make us able to accomplish all that is needed for those dreams.

"Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you
will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus".
Philippians 1:6

Standing there, looking up at the rainbow, I was reminded of those words.

The first thought a rainbow always brings to me is “a promise kept”. The first rainbow was set as a sign in the clouds when the flood was over and Noah and his family came out of the ark for the first time in over a month. God promised never to destroy the earth by flood again. (Genesis 9:8-16). He has kept His word to Noah and I know He will keep His word to us as well.

I learned something else about rainbows that day. I know the science behind a rainbow is based on: the elements of water vapor and a setting sun and the natural law of refraction - all created and set in order by the hand of God. (Psalm 89:11) But here are a few scientific observations I had never made or received before that day:

• It was drizzling a fine mist of rain when I saw the rainbow. If I had not been willing to stand in the rain, I never would have seen the rainbow.

• Depending on where I was standing to take the picture, the rainbow was either crisp, clear and brilliant, or grainy and faint, or not even visible. Physical position determined my perspective and my perspective determined what was visible to me.

• I and my family were the only ones on my street who even saw the rainbow – everyone else was either indoors or not at home. Even some of my family were aware it was there, but not nearly as interested or excited as I was.

I soaked in the expressly childhood joy of seeing that rainbow. My whole day of work and play just melted in comparison of that one moment of taking in the rainbow.

For three days, my spirit has been soaking in these things that the Lord taught me about dreams and goals from that one “rainbow moment”.

• The promises of God are true – whether things are good or bad in my life at the time. When things seem dismal and dreary, if I simply look up to my heavenly Father – He will remind me of His promises and His faithfulness and I will have the joy and encouragement to keep moving on. Only God can put a rainbow in the sky and only God can make a promise and keep it.

• Faith is the position that determines my perspective. The rainbow exists, whether I can see it or touch it, or not. God’s promises are true whether I can see it or feel it or not. If I can’t see God’s promises clearly and I feel that it doesn’t exist, I need to change my position in faith. Many times that means getting on my knees to put myself in a position to capture the reality of God’s promise and His faithfulness.

• When God makes a promise to you – it is personal. No one else (your church, your friends, your family) will receive it with the same measure of faith, joy and excitement that you do – unless God makes the promise to them personally as well. Just as you have a position of faith, so do those who surround you. If you can see the rainbow clearly, but they cannot. It doesn’t mean that God does not exist and that He is not faithful to the word He has given you, it simply means they are not standing in the same position of faith that you are about this particular promise. Depend on God’s promises to carry you through – His position, faith and promise never changes.

So today, I encourage you to ask God – “What rainbow, what promise, do you have for my life? If You already gave it to me, am I still in the right faith position to see it clearly? If not, help me get on my knees until I can see You, your promises and your Word clearly. Then let the joy and excitement of your "rainbow moment" of God's call on your life and His promise to complete it carry you through to the end of the work God has called you to do.

Linville Caverns & Humpback Mountain.

Standing outside Humpback Mountain, you see a mountain that never moves. Unless you have already been inside the mountain, you cannot begin to imagine what exists inside Humpback Mountain: an always growing, always changing Linville Caverns and a constant running stream. The caverns are no less real when you are standing on the outside of the mountain than they are when you are standing inside the mountain. While there is much beauty on the outside of Humpback Mountain, if you only look at the obvious on the outside of the mountain and walked away feeling you understood it completely – you would have missed the most glorious part of all.

When I look at the outside of Humpback Mountain, I am reminded of God’s faithfulness, how BIG He is, how dependable He is. But just like the mountain, if all I ever knew about God was his faithfulness and how BIG He is, it would not begin to describe all of who He is.

God is speaking to us today – to search for more of Him. Knowing God from the outside is not enough. Jesus invites us to have a personal relationship with Him. Get to know Him “on the inside”. Knowing God means knowing more than who He is and what He does – it is spending time to develop a deep relationship with Him.

Don’t accept that you know God because of what you see in the world, what you have been taught by others, or what you have experienced. Get to know God from the inside. Open the door to your “mountain” and let Him speak to your heart.

Seek God with all of your heart….