Tag Archives: Christian

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Whatever is true

Whatever is right

Whatever is noble

Whatever is pure

Whatever is lovely

Whatever is admirable

-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things

 Whatever you have learned from me, or seen in me-put into practice.  And the God of all peace will be you -Philippians 4:8-9

Philippians is my favorite book in the Bible. I love these verses,.  God is lovely and he is truth; through Him comes all that is good. Make him your focus.  I have great joy and peace in knowing God has filled the world with himself.  Look for truth and nobility- that which is right, pure and lovely; things that are admirable, excellent and praiseworthy. Behold the beauty of God; He is all around you!

About the pictures:

1-My second favorite church in Trinity

2.Hallie has been our little proselitizer.  She has given out hand-made tracts at the movies and at church.  This was a message of salvation she put in the mailbox  for "any delivery guy"

3.This is a picture I took at my nieces wedding. .I was so touched that they prayed right before the ceremony.

4.I took this picture of Rylie on one of Sabbath Saturdays at Sam Houston State Park.

5.This is a picture I took of Jason and I on our fifteenth anniversary in Galveston.

6.Hayden had the awesome opportunity to go to Kenya for his thirteenth birthday.

We built a playground for one hundred orphan girls.

7. Jason looks like he's thinking in this picture also taken on out fifteenth anniversary.

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Confession:  I have an unhealthy affection for Dr. Pepper.  I drink way too many.  I’ve tried to stop drinking so many; numerous times.  I’ve tried the lesser calorie version, Dr. Pepper 10, which people have told me is man’s Dr. Pepper; whatever.  I’ve tried cutting back.  Probably least effective, I’ve quit cold turkey, for like two days.  Moving on we’ll get to the real point; this problem is for a different post.  But seriously, pray for me.

This past December I was a part of the Tour of Homes sponsored by our church.  I agreed to decorate my home for the sake of fundraising for missions with the help of my dear friends Larry and Carol Hathaway.  For several weeks, they graciously brought decorations from their home as the extent of my decorating is putting up stockings and a tree.

I’ve always said you know a person better after spending time in their home.   One day after seeing me open the second Dr. Pepper can by lunch, Larry asked me if I was addicted.  I acknowledged without hesitation that I might have a slight problem.  The next question was a bit harder to answer.  Larry asked, “Do your kids drink sodas like that too?”  After thinking a moment I shook my head no.  The same afternoon I brought Rylie home from Kindergarten.  Hayden and Hallie get out thirty minutes later.   Most afternoons, Rylie and I get a little snack as we like to celebrate our “just us” time together.  With Carol and Larry wrapping up the days decorating, Rylie walks in the front door.  She walks straight to the refrigerator and pulls out a…….. (You got it) Dr. Pepper.  To make matters worse, she taps the top of the can twice like some junkie while I’m thinking 1. Not in front of Larry 2.Do I do the tapping thing?  Larry looks at me and without a word says “mmm hmmmm”.

First, you have to know that I don’t allow the kids to break out a Dr. Pepper any time they want.  They can have one a day which I know many of you will think is unhealthy; I can understand that viewpoint completely. Lucky for me, I have the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group on my side.   Formulators of the recipe of Dr. Pepper recipe have insisted that it is medicinal in nature and aids in digestion.   Sincerely speaking, I’m not worried so much about my kids having a soda.  This can-tapping moment however did get me to thinking.

Do I flippantly and mindlessly lead my kids?  I would never pretend to be perfect in front of them or anybody else, but that’s not what I mean.  Possibly the deeper question is, am I truly the example I need to be?  I know that my kids see what I watch on TV.  They also hear me growl and gripe when someone dares to drive too slow in front of me.  They have witnessed me act like all is lost when supper turns out a flop.  They have suffered me losing it when their rooms are atrocious.  Does this put me on the Worst Mother of the Year list?  Certainly not.  But in thinking on all these things my children see, I’m wondering; are they seeing in me- a desire for and dependence on God?  I found a couple of convicting quotes I’d like to share.

 

What the daughter does, the mother did. –Jewish Proverb

And mothers are their daughters’ role model, their biological and emotional road map, the arbiter of all their relationships. –Victoria Secunda

Another frightening thought is that our boys may look to us as the measure of what a woman should be as he looks to a future marriage.

I don’t know about you, but when I have somebody else’s child in my care, I seem to be a little more attentive.  I drive a little more carefully.  I try to feed them well.  I am intentional in providing a safe nurturing and wholesome place.  My children are mine only on gracious loan.  I know they look somewhat like Jason and I.  I see certain facial expressions in them and see Jason.  I hear phrases that are echoes from my own voice.  Mini me.  Mini Jason.  And while this brings about a certain pride, it again brings about the question:  Do I want them to be like me?  Should I be mirroring Jesus more closely?   I want my children to be able to see Jesus in me.  I want to be the example.  I told you how I love Dr. Pepper; can’t get enough.  No Diet or Dr. Pepper 10; I want no lesser version.  I pray in all earnesty that I would hold for my life the same mark.  If my children are to be my mini me, I want more of Jesus. I have to know I can’t get enough.  I need to remember I want no lesser version.  I don’t want a “Sunday Jesus” or a “help me when I’m in a bind” Jesus.  More important than what my children are watching me do, is maybe WHO I'M WATCHING..

To you , O LORD, I lift up my soul……Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths….My eyes are ever on the LORD…..    Psalm 25:1, 4, 15

The meaning of the word Christian is “little Christ”.

May I look to you and listen for your voice with a steadfast devotion that would bit by bit transform me into a mini you!

Couldn' resist putting this one.  Don't know who looks like who.

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I get up every morning and grab my phone.  I push the blue “f” app button on my screen and wait.  With anticipation I am instantly connected to hundreds of friends plus my friends, friends.  I see that my friend’s morning started out rough.  I laugh at what my nephew said yesterday.  I learn that my friend’s dad made it through surgery.  I am reconnected to an old classmate.   I see pictures that make me smile and posts that make me cry.  I am on Facebook!

I quickly latched on to Facebook and found myself entertained and acquainted with friends; reacquainted with those in my past. Before we even moved to Nederland, our family was friended by many here whom we had never met (talk about being encouraged).

I must mention that before I had my own Facebook, I shared an account with Jason.  I was kicked off of his Facebook account when I made too many girly comments under his name like –“too cute” and “so precious!!!!”  Not long ago I was on Hayden’s Facebook (yes I’m a nosy Rosie) but I forgot I was logged in under his name.  I remembered I needed to make a birthday announcement so that Rylie could be showered with birthday wishes from hundreds of friends.  It said something like “Our toot and joy; our constant source of laughter turns six today”.  Hayden got lots of comments about unbrotherly language.   I became resolved to post and comment to my target audience alone.

Pretty much everybody has their own Facebook account.  In fact, there more than 845 million active users as of February.  If not a Facebook, you still have a social outlet; an outlet where you discuss injustices in the world.  You share what’s on your mind; maybe it’s about that driver that cut you off bringing about road rage or how you made a killer meatloaf wrapped in bacon.  My Dad, though not on Facebook, has several outlets.  I think he has coffee and donuts with friends a couple mornings a week at the church office.  People stop by his shop on Main Street  just to chat.  He’s even had great conversations with people on the bench at Wal-Mart.  No matter our assembly, we rant.  We rave.  We listen and we learn.   All this brings to light our need to relate.  God made us to be in relationship; in relationship with one another.  We get that.  But do we get that God wants and even yearns for us to be in relationship with him?

God, who never slumbers, waits for us.  Just as we check for notification to see if our friend has responded, He waits for us to wake up in the morning and say - "Loved that Sunrise”!  He longs for us to thank him for a good night sleep and good test results.  He wishes for us to tell him how worried we are about that family member who’s hurting.  And I’ll bet he doesn’t even mind us telling him what we had at Starbucks that morning.  He never scrolls past our name and he never quickly hits the like button.  He always comments.  And he always has his own posts and personal messages waiting to be read.

God has sent a friend request to each person he has lovingly created.  Some of us have accepted that request and find joy in talking to and hearing from him all day and every day.  For some of us, he is still waiting.  Sadly some have hit the ignore request button.  There are also those of us who have accepted his friend request, but have chosen to hide him.  Maybe he has been hidden because he may say something that we don’t want to hear. Do we quickly scroll past when we see his name because he says too much or wants too much from us?   Maybe some have just thoughtlessly added him to their friend list because it would seem wrong not to.

God has a Facebook.  He intimately knows both those who rely on his daily love and those who have ignored his request.  I am ashamed to say that I thrive off of Facebook love. I actually have felt disappointment when a message has not received a response; when a post or picture has gone unliked and without comment.   I love seeing those little red numbers at the top of my Facebook  page.  Upon a click, I can be uplifted and affirmed.  But unlike Facebook whose love quickly fades and leaves me yearning for more, my friend Jesus is always there!

 

 

*Though I have been reminded through Facebook of my constant need for my best friend Jesus, I am thankful for my Facebook friends and family. Like Paul said, “For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in Spirit…” -Colossians 2:5.  It is in that same presence that I have received your encouragement, learned from your experiences, shared in your joys and sorrows, heard your laughter and felt your hugs.  I am thankful for you!

 

 

 

 

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I don’t clean my windows often.  Ok that’s an understatement.  Not counting yesterday the last time I cleaned them may have been right around Christmas.  Upon cleaning I start out right.  I have my paper towels and I have my Windex.  I clean the inside first and then move to the outside.  Only the same problem occurs every time I clean windows.  After I’ve cleaned the outside I notice that I missed smudges on the inside so I go back in and try once again.  Before my windows are smudge-free I’ve went in and out a few times.

I have made it my goal to get into the habit of seeing God in all situations.  Even window cleaning shows us about Him and his precepts and how they relate to any and everything we experience.  While I was cleaning I wondered to myself why I don’t clean the inside of the window really well in the first place thus making cleaning the outside easier.  You see when I really don’t do a thorough job cleaning inside I go back and forth searching for the location of the stubborn smudge.  Is it inside or out?  Jesus had something to say to the Pharisees about their useless clean- up act.

I believe the Pharisees thought they were in the clean-up business.  They felt it their obligation to reveal sin-smudged lives. With their tassels, dressed to draw attention they vocally identified your every imperfection while boasting that their law abiding way was the way to pure living.  In modern day I can imagine that in place of the tassels, they would be wearing a t-shirt with a logo or driving a mini-van with a self-promoting advertisement.   They would have to have an infomercial too. Have you ever noticed on infomercials they have the one item you need but it’s followed by……and that’s not all several times over?  Before you know it, it’s not one item but a whole line of products that will make your life better.  In chapter 23 it says “They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger.”  Just as many products sold on infomercials are ineffective, the way to right living is not solved by subscribing to products or following a twelve page pamphlet. Often there is more concern with the profit one might receive in selling than the blissful effect a product will have on one's life.  Moreover the Pharisees, according to Jesus, loved having somewhat of a celebrity status; being in the seat of honor for their works.

The Pharisees, though seemingly conceited and completely lacking compassion, still play a beautiful part in the unfolding of God’s marvelous plan.  You see their job wasn’t to clean up sinful lives.  But just like the law given back in the time of Moses, the Pharisees revealed how imperfect we all truly are.  In fact, they became the shining example of imperfection.  They revealed that no matter your fervor in practicing and teaching the law, we still lack in following it perfectly.

Jesus refers to the Pharisees as “blind fools”.  In verse 26 of Matthew Ch. 23 Jesus says, “First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside will be clean”.  Inside cleansing requires the work of a professional and there’s only one.  Perfect Jesus, at our prompting removes every smudge and stain.  Upon his death on the cross he cried out “it is finished”.  Our eternal penalty and record of sin is gone. What remains are bad habits and wrong choices stemming from a lack of Jesus dwelling inside us.  Don’t get me wrong, He never lacks.  It’s just that we take little time making room for more of him inside us.  We often want to curb behaviors and quit bad habits in our own strength and by our own prescription. We even listen to other so- called authorities out there telling us" how to stop smoking in a week” or “how to get your children to mind in ten days”.  Clean out your cabinets.  God has made it simple.  He has said, “First clean the inside……and then the outside will also be clean”.  If only cleaning windows was so simple.

 

Side Note:  I tried to take a picture of smudges on my windows to go with this devotion, but there were none 🙂

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Cause I've got a golden ticket

I've got a golden chance to make my way

And with a golden ticket it's a golden day

 

Anyone remember this movie?

Perhaps you've seen Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory; more recently titled Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  A movie which was made in the early seventies and remade several years ago. The movie, though I've watched it quite a few times creeps me out.  There's a darkness present even though the theme is based on a misfortunate young boy named Charlie having the chance to make his dream come true.

If you haven't had the opportunity to see it or need a refresher, the main character is Charlie who lives with his widowed mother and four elderly grandparents who he helps care for.  Great news to Charlie and every other child in the world is that a well-known candy maker has hidden five golden tickets inside his candy bars.  The lucky ticket finders are promised a tour through Wonka's factory and a life-time supply of chocolate . Four of the winners are unbalanced children with specific behavior problems such as gluttony, being spoiled, lacking manners and and being obsessed with television.  I can only speak for myself and my family but I know that we have all suffered a touch of these issues.  Golden ticket holder number five?  You guessed it; sweet young Charlie.  To sail through most of the movie (you'll have to watch it) each character is lead by their misconduct to their doom unable to finish the tour; dropped from the story.  Charlie and his grandpa also break the factory rules at one point by sneaking into the Fizzy Lifting Soda room.  To grandpa and Charlie's dismay Wonka reveals that because they broke the rules he is disqualified from his lifetime supply of chocolate.   His grandfather remembers that a sly candy maker had approached Charlie early in the story requesting a gobstopper so that he could recreate the recipe promising them riches in return. Grandpa encourages Charlie to get revenge on Wonka by finding then giving the mysterious man the much coveted gobstopper. Charlie refuses and returns to Wonka the gobstopper given to him earlier in the story redeeming his character by doing the right thing even though he felt cheated.

Do you get the feeling we represent every ticket holder in the story?  I know I have my golden dream.  The characters in the story were given the factory tour promised.  But it wasn't enough. You find each character wanting more. They ignore the rules and warnings given by the factory owner.   After all, the golden ticket giver couldn't possibly make possible their golden dream.  They know what they really want.  The children are seen in all kinds of self- indulging behaviors such as gulping from an off-limits chocolate river and popping an experimental three-course dinner gum ball.  Each character never feels quite satisfied.

Charlie gives up his golden dream (the dream to be rich) as he returns the gobstopper to Wonka.   Wonka tells Charlie he has passed the test. He has forfeited HIS golden dream unbeknownst that Mr. Wonka has something much better in store.  Charlie will not only get his lifetime supply of chocolate but will also inherit the entire factory.

This reminds me of Solomon when God basically promises him his golden dream (1 kings 3:5).  God tells Solomon "Ask for whatever you want me to give you".  Solomon, reminded of God's great kindness, asks for a discerning heart.  God hands Solomon a golden ticket and Solomon gives it right back.

He doesn't ask for a new car.

He doesn't ask for the newest version of the iPhone.

He doesn't ask for riches or a Disney vacation.

He asks for the gift- to keep giving.  He wants God to enable him to serve the people knowing that's what God has called him to do.  That's novel don't you think: trusting the one who has given us all that we already have.  We each have a golden ticket at our fingertips. We can clutch it and selfishly pursue our own golden dream (pleasure), but no doubt will find ourselves dissatisfied. Or we can redeem that golden ticket by placing it back in the hands of the one who promises us an inheritance that far outshines any golden dream we have for ourselves

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 I haven’t always loved my name.  I can remember being in middle school hanging out during basketball tournaments or participating in UIL and using an opportunity to change my name.  “Hey! I’m Courtney” I’d lie.  My friends and I would change our names as we introduced ourselves to kids from other schools.  It was fun going incognito and it gave me a chance to be whoever I wanted to be, if just for a moment.

     Though I may not have always loved my name, I LOVE seeing my name.  Nothing thrills me more than seeing my name on envelopes (unless it’s a bill), in the newspaper, on a birthday cake, and I especially love seeing my name on presents wrapped and topped off with a bow.  Who’s with me?  I remember one really cool gift my mom gave me when I was around the age of nine.  She gave me a box full of brightly-colored pencils with the name Kristi Fowler engraved on each one.  I felt so special. 

      Your name was especially thought-out and was probably called out before you were even born.  Names identify who you are.  When I am downstairs at home I can call out, “Hey youngest child wearing the strawberry shirt, come down here.”  Or I could just say “Rylie, come down”.   Names have been used throughout history to show to whom someone belongs.  Jason’s Papa had the last name of Knudson.  It showed that Jason’s Papa was the “son” of Knud.  As I used my name-labeled pencils at school, there was no mistaking who these pencils belonged to.   So what does your name show about who you are?  More importantly, what does your name say about “whose” you are? 

Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck,

 write them on the tablet of your heart.

Then you will win favor and a good name.  Proverbs 3:3-4

     Have you ever had your teacher send an important note home attached to your shirt or rolled up and made into a bracelet bound around your wrist?  Teachers often will do this when they have an important message that they want to make sure is noticed.  Read verse three again.  How can you bind love and faithfulness around your neck so that it never leaves you?  I can only think of one way.  If I, with all of the goodness within me, try to love and try to be faithful I may do pretty well some of the time.  But only Jesus is truly love.  And only He is always faithful.  Jesus IS Love.  Jesus IS Faithfulness.  When it says write them on the tablet of your heart, we need to remember that the only way to be love and to be faithful is by having Jesus in your heart.  Not just in the corner.  Let him fill your heart.  Allow Jesus to be on every page and on every line of your heart-tablet spilling over to the margins.  Remember that learning who Jesus is and spending time with him is how we come to be more like him.  When Jesus is written in our hearts, I believe he graces our neck and adorns our wrist. Then people on the outside can see him too.

     With Jesus in our hearts and on our sleeve we assuredly have a good name.  A name better than Kristi or Courtney.  Verse four also tells us that with Jesus we have won favor.  The one who has known my name since the beginning of time has approved me as a daughter of the King and an ambassador to the world. And I have a message.  My name is Kristi, but I must tell you.  I belong to Jesus.

 

*FYI-The picture is a name jumble from wordle with the names of the girls in our GG's group.

Thanks to Josette Hughes for making the word jumble.

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I read The Legend of the Bluebonnets for the first time in school at about the age of ten.   Talk about a hero.  She-Who-Is-Alone is a young Indian girl who has lost her family in a terrible drought.  The only reminder of her family is a much beloved doll made by her grandmother.  The Great Spirits have called for a sacrifice from the people; an offering which in turn would cause the drought to end.  It is the young girl in the story who selflessly gives all that she has for the good of her people.  While others dance and “ask for help” she goes it alone.  She knows what she has to do and she does it.  She sacrifices her precious doll; the one thing she has left of her family. As she casts her doll into the fire, she waits in darkness as the fire cools.  Then spreading the ashes and waiting through the night, she awakes to a blanket of blue.  In place of withered grass and death, the land is now covered in bluebonnets. Because of She-Who-Dearly-Loves-Her-People  new life has sprung. 

      Does a hero like this exist?  Sure.   From a child offering the last cookie to a friend to a firefighter or soldier giving his very life to save another’s; sacrifices great and small are made every day.  But no sacrifice ever made in history compared to the sacrifice our God made two thousand years ago. 

     The world we live in (like the world two thousand years ago) was much like the land in this story.  People were sick, just as we are sick in sin. We have not been perfect and holy, we sin every day.   In all the land there was a thirst that brought about death because there was no water to carry on life. A great sacrifice was needed to bring about a rain from heaven.   Because we have each sinned we don’t have a forever life.  In my mind, this is like the picture of the grass which was fading in the story.  There must have been hungry bellies with such little food.  Likewise, each of us has a heart which is made to hunger for God.  In each of us is a hunger all the good of the world could never fill.

      He-Who-Is God-Alone  is the hero of our story. He alone is perfect. He wants to share holy heaven with us.  We can’t be a part of something perfect with our sin attached to us.  God alone could make a way for death to die; a way to take our sin from us.  Because He doesn’t wish for us to waste away he gave his most prized possession over to death; his very son.  Yes.  For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish (die) but have eternal (forever) life.  John 3:16 NIV

      He-Who-Dearly-Loves-His-People allowed his only son to die. And as his perfect son died, our sin died with him as we believe in him.  I think sometimes we mindlessly think our forever lives with God start when we die and go to heaven.  Not so!   In the story new life was bright in bloom as the bluebonnets covered the land the next morning. Remember that Jesus didn’t stay on the cross.  He rose again.  The moment you give your life to Jesus, that old sin life dies.  You are a new creation.  Your forever life has begun!  It’s the season of the bluebonnets.  Be bright and beautiful as you display God’s love and sacrifice to a dry and thirsty land.

 

*If you have never given your life to Jesus.  Answer these questions:

1.Do you know and believe that God is perfect?

2. Do you know and believe that you are not?

3. Do you trust that Jesus died on the cross and came back to life three days later?

4.Do you believe that your sin (all your imperfect ways/the things that you have and will do wrong) were put to death on the cross with him?

5. Just as Jesus rose again, do you believe that your forever life in Christ has begun and he lives in you?

If you believe these things, he already knows you do.  Thank him and share with others what he has done for you.  

Click on the link to read The Legend of the Bluebonnets.

http://www.coedu.usf.edu/culture/story/story_texas.htm