I Am Second

I Am Second - that means put God first. It's a new ad campaign for Christ. Campaigners include the lead singer from Korn, a NASCAR driver, a NFL coach, an American Idol (Jason Castro), and a soldier:



I am second...are you?

http://www.iamsecond.com/

The Stain

I have a spot on my carpet. It's a stain left from a spilled drink. I've cleaned the spot many times. Usually the stain looks like its gone. But before too long, it's back. Obviously I am only cleaning the surface of the carpet and the stain must be underneath. So while it looks clean for a while, it always comes back.

Sin is like that. Sometimes we may change a behavior in our life, or "clean up" our act. It looks like the sin is gone. But if the heart issues stays, then the sin will return. What are some examples of cleaning up our act, without changing the heart?

Doing good to get something. (Bribery)
Doing good to please. (Emotional)
Doing good to avoid punishment. (Punitive)

But without changing the heart...the behavior always comes back. That is why prison's have so many repeat offenders. You can punish all you want...but without a heart change the behavior doesn't change for good.

But Jesus - he is better than Oxyclean. He goes to the root of the stain, the sin, and he removes it. The doesn't mean it doesn't require work on our part. Without Jesus, we can work all we want and the stain will stay. But with Jesus, we still have to work, we have to fight temptation, but suddenly we have the power (stain fighting power!) to beat sin.

The fact is, as long as we're on earth we'll always have some remnant of the stain left. Because we are sinners. But once we go to heaven, we'll be presented to God - Stain free!

Ephesians 5:25b - 27 -- Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

Mark 7:21, 22 -- For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.

Colossians 1:22, 23 -- But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel.

Thankful Thursday

This week's list of 5 things big or small that I'm thankful for:

1. My husband supports my writing career. Yay!
2. My daughters' swimming lessons - they will be good swimmers by summer!
3. A good friend who is recovering from basal cell skin cancer removal. I'm thankful they got all the cancer (a relatively large area) and pray she recovers quickly.
4. My sister went to church with me finally! I think she liked it. Yay!
5. Mochas at McDonald's. It's is $1 cheaper per cup than Starbucks AND for every 5 you buy, you get 1 free. In this economy that is something to be thankful for.

What are you thankful for? Link up at Truth 4 the Journey by clicking the button below, or just comment here. Thanks for stopping by as always! I'm still thankful for you!

The Shadow Knows

"Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows." Believe it or not, this tag line came from a radio program from the 1930's. I don't know how I even know it, since I wasn't born until 1968, but I guess it is part of pop culture enough that it is recognizable.

You know, the Shadow isn't the only one who knows. God also knows the evil desires that are lurking in the heart of men. We may put our best foot forward. We may be on our best behavior. We may look like a regular Eddie Haskell from Leave it to Beaver. ("Wally, if your dumb brother tags along, I'm gonna - oh, good afternoon, Mrs. Cleaver. I was just telling Wallace how pleasant it would be for Theodore to accompany us to the movies.")

We may be good at fooling the world around us. We may get accolades, awards, pats on the back. But on the last day, will come the day of reckoning. We'll all have to stand in the presence of God and be judged, not only on our behavior, but on the heart motive behind it. It all boils down to the heart. Because you can fool all of the people some of the time...but you can't fool God.

Who knows what evil lurks in the heart of men? God knows...that's who.

Luke 6:45 -- The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.

1 Corinthians 4:5 -- Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God.

1 Samuel 16:7 -- Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.

Perfect

Every night before I go to bed, I go check on my sleeping children one last time for the night. As they lay there sleeping they look like perfect little angels. Their sweet faces are cherubic. I desire to pick them up and rock them back and forth and sing "I'll love you forever." (Just like the mother in that book "Love You Forever.")

The reality, however, is that if I woke them up, they'd likely grumble or cry and that sweet look would immediately leave their face. Even if it didn't, I can assure you by the next afternoon I'd experience the horrible reality of their personality when they don't have enough sleep. See they LOOK perfect when they are sleeping. But I spend enough time with them when they are awake to know they are not.

Sometimes people may read my blog and think I look perfect too. My smiling picture on the side bar, my inspirational blog posts, my happy, funny videos all make my life look so...perfect. But what you don't see are the 99 photos that I took before I finally got the good one on my side bar. I don't post about the argument I had with my husband, or how I screamed at my children and then hated myself afterwards. Because that's not inspirational.

On the other hand, if I showed my weaknesses, my flaws, my sins more often, would that inspire others to realize that I don't think I'm perfect, and that they don't have to be either! The truth is, I'm a work in progress. I have a messy past. My present is in "clean-up" mode. But my future? Ah, my future is where I'll be perfect. Because of God's grace, when I die God will look at messy me and only see Jesus, the One who is and was perfect because I never can be.

So if you look at me and think my life's perfect because I don't share when it's not - WAKE UP!

Philippians 3:12 -- Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

James 3:2 -- We all stumble in many ways.

Psalm 18:30 -- As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him.